Lemn Sissay: What Does It Mean To Be A 'Child Of The State'?

Lemn Sissay wrote a post in the comments section of this story:
"The empty space where his family should have been" is a curious description of my story. One I haven't come across before. In various BBC documentaries I prove that I was stolen by the government from my mother. She innocently intelligently and pragmatically approached them for short term fostering while she studied in this England. Once her studies were finished she fully intended on returning home with me to Ethiopia. But the social worker had a different idea. One he did not tell her about. The idea was that she would never see me again. He gave me to foster parents and said "treat this as a an adoption. He's yours forever". The foster parents (who I viewed as my parents - it's all i knew - gave up their experiment) after twelve years and placed me into children's homes and said they would not speak to me again. And never did. WHen I left the children's homes a kind social worker said "someone did love you" and he gave me a letter from my files (stamped 1968 a few months after my birth. It was from my birth mother. She was pleading for me back from the social worker. She said "how can I get Lemn back? I want him to be with his own people in his own country. I don't want him to face discrimination."

Thanks PO1 William "Chip" Nagel for sharing this. The foster system essentially did not believe the mother, did not respect her legal rights, and treated baby Sissay as property. This is not really a "sad" story, it's a crime committed by the government.