Father of Madonna's Malawi baby remarries
Yohane Banda, the biological father of the Malawian toddler pop star Madonna wants to adopt, has remarried, a relative said today.
Banda’s cousin, Gedion Zimba, said the father of 13-month-old David married Flora Kamanga on Friday.
David was whisked away last month to London after Madonna and her husband, British filmmaker Guy Ritchie, were granted interim custody of him by a High Court judge.
Zimba said Banda, 32, married Kamanga, 22, at a low-key civil ceremony in his Lipunga Village in the central border district of Mchinji.
“It was a colourful ceremony. We are happy for him,” he said.
Banda was not immediately available for comment.
Kamanga, who has a 2-year-old child from a previous relationship, is three months pregnant with Banda’s child.
In earlier interviews, Banda disclosed that he met Kamanga, from nearby Noti Village, in April this year.
“I was still mourning my wife but I thought it was high time I found a partner,” he said.
Banda’s wife of 10 years Marita, 28, died on October 1, 2005, of childbirth complications a week after giving birth to David. The couple had two other sons - Garnet and Babel, but they both died in infancy from malaria.
Malawi’s High Court is to rule November 20 on a challenge by a coalition of human rights and child advocacy groups on the proceedings surrounding the adoption by Madonna.
The singer says she has met all the country’s requirements for adopting the child.
