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The Monkey Boy

I have been asked to write an essay on feral children meaning children who are unsocialised or brought up with no human contact. Through looking and researching in my own time on the internet and also watching a short documentary, one case has touched me and that is of John Ssebunya.

People call him the monkey boy because for a long period in his life john was brought up and helped by monkeys. John was around five years old when he ran away, he feared for his own life as he had just witnessed his mother being murdered by his aggressive father.

In 1998 he was found by a young girl who was collecting firewood. ‘the vervet monkeys started attacking me and there was one above me in a tree, I started prodding it and it fell out, it looked a bit big for a monkey, but it had thick black hair all over its body’ said the young girl.

When psychologist Professor Candland was asked to examine the case he was baffled. After observing the boys interactions with a group of monkeys he said it was definite that he had spent time living with monkeys but there was no way to find out exactly how long for or indeed what they actually did to help him.

He also thinks that the vervets didn’t care for John in any real sense, but according to John the monkeys brought him food to eat and he followed them around, he also says that they would always play together. What is even more extraordinary is that John claims to have drunk no water while with the monkeys but an animal dietician has said that there could have been enough water in the food he ate to keep John going e.g bananas and other various fruits.

While watching the documentary I was amazed at how John reacted when he was reunited with his monkey friends, he played games with them and acted like one of them. John is now around 14/15 years old and since living with monkeys has learned how to speak and act like normal children, Although he can speak he has developed a slight stutter. He is very popular with other students because he shares his fascinating stories about his childhood in the jungle. I have noticed that he is very shy and what seems to be very alert and aware of things around him.

Natalie Ashford 10AB