What really happened to the millions Madonna pledged to Malawi's children

Cycling home through the African night, his feet bare and wearing only ragged shorts and a grubby shirt, a crop farmer stops under the stars to give his views about the latest scandal involving Madonna, a woman whose lifestyle could hardly be further removed from his.

And yet his views are worth listening to, for this is Yohane Banda, the biological father of the Malawian boy adopted by the Material Girl when she decided to add ‘poverty-chic’ to the long list of fads she has followed in her 30-year career.

And in the darkness, Yohane, a pleasant, mild-mannered individual, gave me some news for Madonna: his son David, five — who now lives with the singer — is about to have a new half-brother or sister.

For Yohane had just returned from taking his new wife to a rural clinic to give birth. Yet he does not expect David or Madonna ever to see the child.

‘She took my son away for ever,’ says Yohane. ‘Madonna is only interested in herself.’

Yohane is not alone in feeling cheated.

Once dubbed Saint Madonna of Malawi, the American singer is now at the centre of an astonishing feud in the land to which David Livingstone, the British missionary, first brought Christianity almost 150 years ago.

It involves allegations of sexual shenanigans, millions of dollars squandered on parties and high-living and claims that Madonna was allowed to adopt her Malawian children — she also took on a girl called Mercy James, now five — on the basis of promises that are, so far, unfulfilled.

And at the centre of the scandal is the fact that the school Madonna promised to build here has been abandoned. Where it should have been standing, this week there was nothing but a dusty field.

To understand the background to this story — and the depth of anger of the local people — we must go back five years to when Madonna first came to Malawi.

While Dr Livingstone arrived on the shores of Lake Malawi at the end of a five-year African odyssey, Madonna did things rather differently — and more extravagantly.

Travelling by private jet and accompanied by her personal trainer, public relations men and high-powered lawyers, her appearance was described by local politicians as a ‘gift from heaven’.

Determined to adopt an African child, despite having her own two children from separate relationships, she toured orphanages in search of the perfect addition to her brood.