Photograph: Shavawn Rissman/AP
Peter Baneti, the uncle of three-year-old Mercy James, said the child's Malawian relations were deeply unhappy that the orphan would now miss out on a life of luxury and privilege as part of the 50-year-old singer's extended family.
"We don't understand the judge's reasoning," Mr Baneti, 41, told The Sunday Telegraph in Lilongwe, Malawi's capital.
"We as a family discussed this and agreed that it is in the best interests of Mercy to have her adopted, so why should the judge stop this if the family is OK with it?"
Mr Baneti said Judge Esmie Chombo, who threw out Madonna's adoption application on Friday, had denied his niece the chance of a new life away from the Kondanani orphanage where she is now living.
He was scathing about the judge, who had said she would not bend strict residency rules even for a wealthy foreign celebrity.
"Does she know what it means to be poor? Does she know life in an orphanage? How can she say Mercy is better off at Kondanani?" Mr Baneti said.
"We are very disappointed. We hope that the Supreme Court will overturn her ruling."
Madonna's lawyer Alan Chinula immediately lodged an appeal against Mrs Justice Chombo's decision, which is likely to be heard later this week.
On Saturday night the star was still staying at the luxury Kumbali Lodge outside Lilongwe with her two children, Lourdes, 12, and Rocco, eight, and David Banda, the three-year-old Malawian boy she adopted in 2006.
All 13 rooms at the hotel, including nine thatched chalets, had been booked for her 15-strong entourage of assistants, nannies – including one for Mercy – and even a child psychologist.
The singer reacted with astonishment when she was told of the decision by her lawyer and stormed out of the hotel room where her lawyer informed her. Mercy, whose Malawian name is Chifundo, had been staying with Madonna at the hotel for the last week and had already been introduced to her children while the judge considered her ruling.
Yesterday she was hosting a small party in the lodge's forested grounds. Government officials, staff from her Raising Malawi charity, and other visitors were seen arriving during the afternoon.
Malawians, who have followed the case intently, have been divided about the judge's decision. Human rights groups had argued that allowing Madonna to adopt the child would encourage trafficking and perhaps even attract Western paedophiles.
But messages on social networking sites in Malawi were overwhelmingly in favour of Madonna.
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With all the drama going on with Casey Aldridge, thank God that Jamie Lynn and the baby Madden were not in the car. Five days after flipping his pick-up truck over in what was — quite possibly — a drinking-related accident, Casey Aldridge has been released from the hospital. As we previously reported, the 20-year-old, who is Jamie Lynn Spears's boyfriend and the father of her child, Maddie Briann, had just left his cousin's bachelor party, and was carrying several other party-goers in his vehicle, when he lost control and drove off the road
