Madonna's girls school in Malawi to become cemetery

The government of Malawi has announce plans to build a monument to national heroes a site previously designated by Madonna for an elite academy for girls, The Guardian reports.

After attending a groundbreaking ceremony in the African country in 2009, the pop star and her charity, Raising Malawi, scrapped the $15 million plan last year to instead build 10 schools in partnership with non-profit buildOn.

As such, officials decided to turn the abandoned site into the country's first heroes acre. "It was a cabinet decision to construct the heroes' acre at this site," said tourism minsiter Daniel Liwimbi. "Malawians deemed to have done a heroic endeavour of national importance, and selected by committee, which will scrutinise whatever they did, will be buried there."

The relationship between the Malawian government and Madonna, who has adopted two children from the country, has been tense after the charity scrapped plans to build the academy. In an inerview earlier this year, president Joyce Banada was critical of the pop star's latest charitable project.

"Madonna came to Malawi and Madonna came to build a school, an academy like the one Oprah [Winfrey] built [in South Africa], but she changed her mind," she said. "I have a problem with a lot of things around the adoption of the children and the changing of the mind and then coming back to build community schools."

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