The Malawian boy adopted by Madonna was promised to an American family before the singer arrived in the African country earlier this month, according to the 13-month-old's father.

Yohane Banda insists he had already agreed to David being adopted by the brother of an American woman who had stayed at the Home for Hope orphanage.

Madonna picked out David when she visited the children's home in the Malawian capital Lilongwe, but Banda wishes he had been adopted by the unknown family because he would have avoided the media storm which has since disrupted his life.

He says, "I'd already resigned myself to the fact that Davie was going to be adopted--I'd known this for some time. There was an American woman living in the orphanage and she had been there for some time.

"She wanted to adopt three children and one of them was Davie--I knew all about it. In the end, she chose another three children because she wanted her brother to adopt Davie.

"Her brother's name was also David and she sent him pictures of my son and said he was going to come and collect him. We were waiting for them both to come back to the village, but Madonna took him first.

"If these Americans had adopted him, no one would have ever caused this fuss and I could be living my life as normal."