Photo: WENN
Malawi president Joyce Banda claimed that Madonna exaggerated her humanitarian work for the country, and that she expected VIP status while she was visiting.
The star has previously been given VIP status but this was recently removed, which Madonna did not know until she was at the airport to return home.
President Joyce Banda was reportedly offended by an informal handwritten note that Madonna sent her, which called her by her first name and also contained spelling mistakes. Banda has since questioned Madonna's claims referring to ten schools that she built in Malawi.
"Where are the 10 schools she has built?" Banda said. "She is just building school blocks at already existing schools. In some cases she just renovated an already existing block. This is an insult to the people of Malawi. She can't be lying to the world at our expense."
A statement from her office also attacked Madonna's VIP status, saying, "Granted, Madonna is a famed international musician. But that does not impose an injunction of obligation on any government under whose territory Madonna finds herself, including Malawi, to give her state treatment. Such treatment, even if she deserved it, is discretionary, not obligatory."
The statement went on to claim that Madonna "wants Malawi to be forever chained to the obligation of gratitude," and continued, "Kindness, as far as its ordinary meaning is concerned, is free and anonymous. If it can't be free and silent, it is not kindness; it is something else. Blackmail is the closest it becomes."
Madonna visiting Malawi in 2009, to launch the first girls' school that she was building
However, Madonna denied the accusations, with her spokesperson implying that Banda's claims were motivated out of spite - as her sister was recently removed from Madonna's organisation, after accusations that she was stealing money.
Trevor Neilson, whose Global Philanthropy Group is managing Madonna's projects in Malawi, said, "Obviously these attacks are influenced by the fact that the president's sister was removed as the head of Madonna's organisation in Malawi due to concerns about mismanagement of $3.8m."
Madonna said she was "saddened" by the accusations but, at the end of her trip last week, said, "My reasons for being here have never changed, I am here because I care deeply about the children of Malawi, that is my main priority."
Below - photos of Madonna dressed as a boy scout
