Children abandoned to the wild by their families are called wild or feral children. If you remember the life of Dina Sanichar, one of the children with such a life, we shared it with you recently.
The wild child we will focus on today is John Ssabunnya, who, like Dina, grew up with monkeys, not wolves, and later adapted to city life and became the subject of documentaries.
3-year-old John flees into the woods after allegedly brutally murdering his family
John was born in Uganda in 1980, when conflicts hit the country’s economy badly. John’s parents were not particularly caring parents, in fact, his father was said to be a violent person, but also involved in gunfights.
There aren’t many details about John’s infancy, but all the weird stories about the little boy begin when he was just 3 years old. When he was just 3 years old, both John’s mother and father passed away. Here it gets a little interesting, because according to neighbors, John, on a impulse, runs away to the woods after brutally murdering his parents.
There are also allegations that his parents left John alone, but everyone in the village where John grew up points the little boy as the culprit.
Monkeys welcome John in the forest
John himself tells the part of the story after he escaped into the woods. John says that after he went to the forest, he was greeted by a colony of African-origin monkeys, and they ate bananas and sweet potatoes together.
John hung out with the monkeys after his meals, and the monkeys accepted John as part of the group. Slowly starting to imitate monkeys’ movements, sounds and even behavioral patterns, John even learned to climb trees with his monkey colony.
John stated that they slept on banana leaves with the monkeys and did not consume any water for a very long time. During the 3 years he stayed in the forest, he consumed only fruits, nuts, fruits and vegetables found in the wild such as corn and strawberries.
According to the later analysis of the scientists on John, the little boy met all his water needs through fruits and vegetables during his stay in the forest. However, this incident did a lot of damage to John’s body.
John was found by a woman in the woods years later.
When the calendars showed 1991, a woman named Milly Sebbavio saw John while walking in the forest collecting something to eat with other monkeys. After returning to her hometown and asking for help, Milly took a group of people to the scene so that others could witness what she saw.
The people who came to the forest wanted to save John from the monkeys and take him to the hospital. Because the little boy’s body was so frail that when they first saw John, they thought the boy was about to die.
Of course, things have not been this easy. Because both the monkeys and John started throwing stones and sticks at these strangers who came to the forest. In a great struggle, John hid behind a rock, but in the end, the villagers managed to capture the little boy and take him to the village.
John’s body did not accept the food that normal people eat
The locals who brought John to the village first tried to make the little boy drink hot soup. However, John’s body could not handle it and he had diarrhea for days. As disgusting as it was, when John defecated for the first time, a half-metre-long worm emerged from the little boy’s anus.
John was diagnosed as a “wild child” by scientists the year he was first rescued. Initial reports indicate that John had various sores and scabs all over his body, and that the young boy even once had hypertrichosis, which caused abnormal growth of body hair, but later cleared up on its own.
When John was plucked from the wild, one of his toes was missing. It is not known when or how this happened, and how John recovered without infection after his finger was severed. Also, just like Dina Sanichar, John could not communicate with people, he could only tell his troubles by crying.
John was first placed with a family, then joined the choir
Rescued from the forest, John was ostracized by society for a long time. People were calling the little boy by names like “ape boy”, “half-human” and “half-boy half-animal,” and even the government did not want to take care of John.
A philanthropist named Paul Wasswa, who learned about this situation, wanted to adopt John with his wife Molly. After completing the adoption process, Paul and Molly took John with them and placed the little boy in an orphanage, which was like a rehabilitation center.
Here, little John learned to talk, walk, eat from the plate and do many things normal children do with 1,500 children. When John spoke for the first time, everyone in the orphanage was impressed by the little boy’s voice, and with the support of his family, John joined the choir and began to sing with his charming voice.
Having participated in many choirs, such as the Pearl Of Africa Children’s Choir, John started primary school, where he learned English as well as thoroughly learning his own language. But for John, the real deal began with the efforts of a dentist who came to Uganda for free dental treatment.
When 56-year-old dentist Hilary Cook arrived in Uganda, she was so impressed with John’s story that when she returned to her home country, England, she toured with a choir in which John could be a part. The English press used the following headlines in their newspapers for John’s concerts; “A boy raised by monkeys in the jungles of Africa comes to England to sing in a children’s choir. ”
John appeared as the captain of the football team in the Special Olympics
Thanks to this tour, John sang with his own choir in London, Wales, Glasgow and Sheffield. But singing wasn’t the only thing John was gifted with. The young boy had a special interest in football, and in 2003 he captained his team at the Special Olympics for children and adults with mental and physical disabilities.
Throughout his football career, John continued to compete in countries such as the USA and the UK, during which time he maintained close contact with his adoptive parents Paul and Molly.
Added to the category of “wild boy” by science, John Ssabunny is now 41 years old. The young man, who bought himself a small house in Bombo, Uganda, with the money he earned from football and choir, said last year that he wanted to get married and have children.
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