Pop star Madonna is not a welcome icon in Malawi, South Africa. Her recent charitable effort to lease land in Lilongwe to build a school has been met with much negativity by the villagers.

Although the Malawi government claims to have paid the villagers about US$500,000, which is approximately the same figure Madonna paid for the lease of the land, the villagers are demanding more.

The villagers argue that they have been farming in the area for years, and the sudden loss of land affects their lives drastically. Government officials claim that the land is government-owned and warned that protesters will be arrested.

Madonna has pledged to build similar facilities in other countries if this project is successful.