JOHANNESBURG, Oct 22, 2006 (AFP) - Madonna's bid to adopt a Malawian baby may have raised some hackles about foreign adoptions but the increasing number of African orphans underscores a pressing need to find suitable new parents.
The scourge of AIDS and the civil wars that continue to bedevil the world's poorest continent means that the number of orphans, which currently stands at 43 million, is bound to mushroom.
United Nations estimates forecast that 18 million African children will have lost at least one parent by the end of the decade. And while orphans have traditionally been absorbed by their relatives, the AIDS pandemic means many uncles and aunts are not in a position to take over as before.
Sarah Crowe, a spokeswoman for the United Nations children's fund UNICEF, said the growing number of foreign adoptions of African children was "not a bad thing" but stressed it should be a last resort.
"The best way to deal with intercountry adoption and reduce it is to encourage community participation and raise the spirit of "ubuntu" (Zulu for togetherness)," she said.
"We should encourage and give a chance to extended families to raise the kids in a familiar environment and surrounding. The inter-country adoption should be a last resort," she added.
Yohane Banda, the father of 13-month-old David who is now being cared for at Madonna's London home, told AFP he was happy that the pop diva had given his son an escape route from the poverty of his home village in central Malawi.
According to Marika Bloem, an adoptions social worker with the South African department of social development, the most important thing was for the children to be given some stability. But she also expressed a desire for more Africans to offer themselves as adoptive parents and thus reduce the culture shock.
"There is a big problem with abandoned and orphaned children who need stable parents," she said.
"The numbers of unparented children is growing and there is a need for people to come and adopt -- especially blacks whose culture often hinders them to adopt."
In South Africa alone, 300 children have been adopted in the last year by foreigners, said Bloem. The biggest number of adoptive parents came from the Netherlands and Sweden.
Gail Johnson, a white South African who adopted a number of black orphans, said that vastly different backgrounds should not be an obstacle to adoptions as long as the would-be parents could offer love.
"Why when it's a celebrity is there such a furore?" said Johnson who herself found fame after her adoptive son Nkosi made a moving speech at an international AIDS conference in 2001. He has since died of the disease.
"If a person can help a poor kid to have a family, why all the fuss about them adopting. If someone comes across a hungry orphan and falls in love with that child, why not be allowed, through the right procedures, to adopt her," said Johnson, who is now caring for a five-year-old boy she adopted in Johannesburg.
Madonna is the latest in a growing list of wealthy celebrities who have adopted children from some of the world's poorest countries.
Tomb Raider star Angelina Jolie adopted a baby boy, Maddox, from Cambodia and a girl, Zahara, from Ethiopia. Fellow Hollywood actress Meg Ryan also adopted a baby girl from China last year.
Others have settled for being unofficial "godparents" to orphans by sponsoring their schooling and housing. Talk show host Oprah Winfrey, for example, is the sponsor of an academy for impoverished girls in South Africa.
UNICEF spokeswoman Crowe agreed that the most important thing was how thoroughly adoptive parents could devote themselves to their new charges.
"It's about what's in the best interest of the child. It's about giving a child a loving, nurturing home, when there are no alternatives," she told AFP.
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