Celebrity do-gooder fail

It’s very nice that Madonna wants to build a school for girls in Malawi, but is there really nowhere in the country she can build it without evicting hundreds of people from their homes? Residents have refused to leave the site just outside Lilongwe, the capital. Lilongwe District Commissioner Charles Kalemba told 200 villagers Thursday ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images
MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images
MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images

It's very nice that Madonna wants to build a school for girls in Malawi, but is there really nowhere in the country she can build it without evicting hundreds of people from their homes?

It’s very nice that Madonna wants to build a school for girls in Malawi, but is there really nowhere in the country she can build it without evicting hundreds of people from their homes?

Residents have refused to leave the site just outside Lilongwe, the capital.

Lilongwe District Commissioner Charles Kalemba told 200 villagers Thursday that the government land has been handed over to Madonna. The villagers have been offered other government land.

Anjimile Mtila-Oponyo, who will be principal of Madonna’s school, says the singer paid the villagers more than 16 million kwacha (about $115,000) to compensate them for their houses.

After last year’s drawn-out adoption battle, Malawian judges must be getting pretty sick of dealing with Madonna.

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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