The father of Madonna's newly adopted son said Sunday (Oct 23rd) he never intended his son to be adopted, only raised on his behalf.

"If we were told that she wants to take the baby as her own we would not have consented, because I see no reason why I should give away my son," said Yohane Banda, a 32-year-old farmer from Malawi in southern Africa.

"I am just now realizing the meaning of adoption," he said.

"It would have been better for him to continue staying at the orphanage because I see no reason why my child should be given away forever when I can feed him," he said.

"I cannot read and write so I relied on what the (government) officials told me that the papers said Madonna would look after the child the way the orphanage planned to educate him and then he comes back to me."

When asked if he had signed any agreements with the singer, Banda said: "I am still waiting to get my copies."

Explaining his decision to send baby David to an orphanage after his mother's death, he said: "We sent this child to an orphanage because at one month we could not look after him, we did not have a health centre nearby and the orphanage was the ideal place for him."

Banda's statements, made over the weekend to The Associated Press and Reuters, were the latest in a series of mixed messages he conveyed since the pop star brought 13-month-old David from an orphanage to her London home last week.

Banda originally criticized the human rights groups that have mounted a court challenge to the adoption. "This is our child and we made the decision that Madonna take him because we wish him a good life. No one will stop that," he said last week.

But in interviews over the weekend, Banda and his family said they only believed Madonna would take care of David just as an orphanage would. He did not realize, he said, the child would be gone "for good."

Madonna's Malawian lawyer Alan Chinula refused to comment.

Editor: Donald