Thursday, August 5, 2010

Swaziland Extends Suspension of Adoption

From the Times of Swaziland:

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, Themba Masuku, there was an increasing demand for Swazi children by foreign nationals and this was one of the many concerns that his office had.

Although he did not have the specific number of applications, Masuku said he had seen a huge increase in the applications between last year and March hence one of the reasons for suspending it in order to review the act.

The suspension was announced by the DPM in March but it had been expected that it would be lifted by the end of June. However this did not happen as there were many issues to be sorted out.

Masuku said another problem was that there were very few applications for adoption from Swazi nationals and said this was also worry to government.

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"There is a serious lack of internal adoption and further there is a need for them to be streamlined," he said.

He said they also wanted adopted children to be able to trace their roots should they want to in the future.

He said, for example, if a child with a Dlamini surname is adopted, then that child’s surname should not be totally changed to that of the adoptive parents.

"They should be able to be called Dlamini-Anderson for example and then the children can be allowed to change their surname should they wish to, once they are all grown up," he said.

6 comments:

Denise Emanuel Clemen said...

The changing of a surname is a negation of identity--as if those roots are something to hide or be ashamed of. I love this idea of hyphenating. It makes sense.

Anonymous said...

I disagree - no adoptive parent should ever negate identity, culturally or otherwise, but leaving the surname different is like saying they are not a true member of the family. I think you must not be an adoptive parent.

Unknown said...

Unfortunately, as is usual, the Swazi Government identifies a problem (the failure of Swazis to adopt) and then does exactly the wrong thing and stops ALL overseas adoptions. So exactly where are these childen going to go. There are hardly any government funded orphanages. I know of only one. I for one adopted a child in Swaziland because he was an orphan, was being kept in a government hospital where he had been abandoned by his extended family after his parents died, and was not even being educated at the age of 9 years since they couldn't be bothered. He had so many medical problems - no space here for them all but scabies, rotten teeth, fungal scalp, malnutrition, are just a few. I doubt whether anything much will happen. Swazi society is one of social control. You even need an interview to get a passport. Very disappointing. By the way, my son keeps in touch with some relatives in SD. I kept his first name as his middle name as he wanted to change his given name. It makes all sorts of problems if the child does not have the same name as the parents. Such as at border control.

Anonymous said...

At Alan Evans. I am a masters social anthropology student at the University of Cape Town. I am currently researching the government's decision to halt foreign adoption, is there any chance you would be interested in doing an interview with me and sharing your story?

Unknown said...

Is there anyone here with information for a Chilean resident (single female, late 30s) on adoption from African countries? I am a South African who adopted here and my friend is his godmum and has worked in SA, but we found out that there is no inter-country agreement between SA and Chile, so she can't adopt from here. Any advice please! contact me via email: berniceharingtonfuller@gmail.com

Unknown said...

Hi, I only just saw your post (three years too late!). I would be interested as I think would my son who is now 17.