UNDER A hot sun, boys herd goats in search of green grass, in a nearby plot a couple weed a crop of maize. The ceremony and fanfare that surrounded the visit of Madonna in 2009 now seems very distant.
It was here in the village of Chinkhota in southern Malawi that the pop superstar broke ground for the construction of a prestigious academy for underprivileged girls. Billed as a “gift” to the African country from which she has adopted two children, the $15 million (€11 million) institution was to take in 500 girls and prepare them to be “future women leaders”.
Now local elders have accused Madonna of letting them down and the Malawi government has been forced to admit it does not know what her plans are, after she announced that the academy had been scrapped.
Madonna (52) stated that she would instead focus on building secondary schools across the country, rather than one school, but officials in Malawi have been left scratching their heads as to what this will entail. “I want to reach thousands, not hundreds of girls,” she said. “I want to do more and I want to do it better.”
The news has come as a bombshell to villagers who surrendered their ancestral land to make way for the school. The Malawian government said it had not been consulted and will now summon the singer to explain herself.
“We’d like to know why she has changed,” said education minister Peter Mutharika. “Yes, we do appreciate that it is her project; she devised it . . . but still, as government, we’d be interested to know why there is this change.
Mr Mutharika, tipped to be the next president when his brother, Bingu wa Mutharika, ends his final term in 2014, added: “I honestly don’t know the number of schools she is going to construct . . . so until we talk to her, we can’t comment much.”
He said the government would also review the memorandum of understanding it signed to “see what it says before we can embrace her new approach”.
Malawi is one of the world’s poorest nations, with more than half of the population of 12 million living on less than one dollar a day. Some 200 people were removed from Chinkhota village, on the outskirts of the capital, Lilongwe, to make way for the Raising Malawi Girls Academy.
Villagers threatened to block the project until Madonna dipped into her pockets to compensate them with $500,000. The Malawian government, which has often defended Madonna’s charitable work, helped evict the villagers, claiming it was state land meant for development projects.
Chinkhota became a building site, but without a building. Construction of the academy was delayed over a dispute between the Raising Malawi charity and villagers who claimed they were not adequately compensated for land.
The building was due to be completed in December this year.
Madonna is funding several charities in Malawi, including homes for children with Aids. She has built a multi-purpose community centre 50km from Lilongwe which looks after more than 8,000 orphans. Madonna’s spokeswoman did not comment yesterday but said she would seek further information from the singer’s management. – (Guardian service)