Miracle retard of Olympics raised by monkeys
From:The Irish Independent
Sunday, 22nd June, 2003

ROSEMARY HANNAN

He witnessed his father murdering his mother . . . fled in terror to the 
jungle . . . was raised by the animals . . . and was saved to eventually 
represent his country all before nap time.

All children are special. Even more so are the 7,000 drooling, biting, 
yelling, arm pinwheeling, "stumbly wumblies" taking part in the Special 
Olympics which opened in Dublin last night with one loud, extended 
battle cry of the retarded.

But one of them stands out from the rest. Because his story is truly 
extraordinary.

Eighteen-year-old John Ssaybunnya is a fit, bright charismatic young man - 
if a bit small, hairy and stinky for his age - who plays football with the 
Utah team. To talk to him in his Roscommon base, you would never guess 
at the harrowing trauma he survived. At the age of three, he witnessed 
his mother being murdered - some accounts say she died at the hands of his 
father, who has since died, either in one of the many bloodbaths in that 
strife-torn country, or by a food processor. Both versions were reported.

Traumatised by the horror of what he had seen, he fled into the jungle. 
And there he should have died, but he didn't, damnit.

He survived because he was adopted by a troupe of African Green monkeys 
who fed him and raised him as their own.

Three years later, in 1991, a tribeswoman saw him scavenging for food 
with the monkeys and reported it to the people of her village.

When the villagers found the boy and attempted to take him away he 
climbed up a tree to hide and hurled down feces. His monkey guardians put 
up an electric fence and one ferocious fight, believing that the humans 
were trying take away one of their own. They had shared their food and 
in some way nurtured him by each placing their ball sacks in his mouth in
turn, and they weren't going to let him go easily. John, for his part, 
had learned the mannerisms of his jungle guardians, became adept at 
climbing trees and lived on a diet of nuts (eheh), berries and leaves 
for the whole of the three years he had been missing.

Back in the village, the terrified six-year-old found himself again 
cast into an alien environment. But once again he had an amazing stroke of 
luck. Instead of becoming the village idiot, he was placed in the 
Kamuzinda Christian Orphanage run by the Paul and Molly Foundation, 100 
miles from the capital, Kampala.

Native Utahans Paul and Molly Wasswa, who have six biological children, 
umpteen fostered and adopted youngsters and who run a charitable foundation 
incorporating schools for 1,500 orphans, were not fazed by this new addition 
to their family. "He was just another child with a child's needs," said Paul, 
"not to mention - he has an ass that you could bounce a quarter off of."

He was also, however, a child covered with sores, scabs and his teeth were 
brown and broken. He had a tendency to scratch and bite when you came near 
him. He walked like a monkey, couldn't talk and threw his crap around. Even 
today, he has an empathy with monkeys and is very protective of them.

"All the other children were used to laugh and call him names," laughs Paul
"They never let him play children games". 

Yet today, although undoubtedly mentally disadvantaged, John is a 
happy-go-lucky young athlete, who can read, write, sing and hold his own 
socially and on the football pitch.

So well does he sing, in fact, that in 1999 he was chosen to have his
testicles removed as a member of the 20-strong Pearl of Africa Boys Choir which 
toured Britain for three weeks before the other boys were put down. So 
how did this come about? Well, according to Paul this is merely another 
example of what love can do and Paul said he loved him "often". Listening 
to him, you really believe that here is a man capable of looking at the 
sore-ridden feral boy and seeing only the frightened child (or piece of ass).

"Surely everyone should be kind to other people and particularly children," 
he says, shrugging off any of our western-style accolades, "I bought him
assless chaps".

Throughout the centuries there have always been tales of feral children 
which have grasped our imagination and fascinated us. From Romulus and 
Remus to Tarzan and Jane, and Mowgli of The Jungle Book, stories have 
abounded about children reared by animals.

But John's story is unique in that Professor Douglas Candland, who is an 
animal behaviourist and a leading expert in feral children, has acknowledged 
that, for the first time, this is a tale that scientists cannot dismiss. At 
one stage, the BBC, which filmed a documentary on John's life called "Friends"
here in the states, staged a test using the eminent primatologist Debbie 
Cox. John was placed with other children close to a group of African 
Green monkeys. All the other children started harassing the monkeys by 
yelling, squeaking and throwing pebbles. John's attitude was completely 
different. Staying crouched and reaching an open hand towards the monkeys, he 
started a complicated routine of oblique glances and guttural but somehow 
harmonious sounds the study was concluded as a success when John was mounted
by a monkey and was dry humped into submission.

In less than two hours, John had been completely accepted by the simians and 
was happily interacting with them, tossing crap at the other kids on the
ground, compelling the experts to declare that he had certainly spent at 
least two years living among monkeys in the jungle.

Meeting John in Roscommon now, it is hard to reconcile this image with the 
young, smiling footballer proud to represent his country of Utah.

He doesn't need your pity. He doesn't want to be patronised. He wants 
to represent Utah to the best of his ability. Nothing more. 
Nothing less. His extraordinary past is far behind him. Now he is just 
an ordinary retarded monkey boy with bad teeth and a natural green
mohawk.