[language] language development

[H. Mark Hubey]

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Choirboy 'brought up by
                chimpanzees'

                BY PAUL WILKINSON
  IN A story straight from the pages of Edgar Rice
  Burroughs, a boy said to have been brought up by apes in
  the rain forest is coming to Britain to sing with a children's
  choir.

  The visit is being arranged by Hilary Cook, a dentist. She
  met the boy, a 14-year-old known as John, and was told
  his story while she was working in a remote settlement
  100 miles from Kampala this summer.

  John's parents had been killed in a tribal skirmish when he
  was 2 and he was abandoned in the forest. A colony of
  chimpanzees apparently came across the toddler and
  began to care for him. They fed him fruit, nuts and berries,
  sheltered him and treated him as one of their own.

  For the next four years, the story goes, John lived with the
  chimpanzees, out of sight of any human beings. He grew
  to believe he was an ape and learnt to forage for food.

  Then, eight years ago, a tribesman saw what he thought
  was a naked boy roaming with the apes. At first no one
  believed him, but, when he persisted, a group set off to
  investigate.

  When they found John, he fled in fear from the human
  beings and his chimpanzee benefactors put up a ferocious
  fight to prevent the tribesmen taking him away. However,
  the boy was caught and taken to the Kamuzinda Christian
  Orphanage, where he lived with the family of the
  orphanage manager, who set about teaching him civilised
  ways.

  They discovered that he could say nothing beyond a few
  animal noises, so they first had to teach him to speak. In
  the course of his lessons, it was discovered that he had a
  fine singing voice. John joined a 20-strong children's choir
  that has since become famous in the area.

  Now Mrs Cook, 56, a mother of five children, has
  arranged to bring the choir on a tour of Britain next month,
  singing African and Christian songs. The cost will be met
  by the BBC, which sent a film crew to Uganda to make a
  programme about John that will be screened later next
  month.

  Mrs Cook, from Bannercross in Sheffield, said: "It is an
  incredible story and there is great excitement about the
  choir's trip. Many people want to meet John.

  "You hear stories of children being brought up in the
  jungle by animals, but most people think it happens only in
  books and films. But, in John's case, it was true. His
  chances of survival were nil until the family of chimpanzees
  came along and began to care for him.

  "From that point until he was aged about 6, he was reared
  by the chimps, who fed him on their own diet and
  sheltered him until he was found and returned to
  civilisation.

  "He is a shy boy with the most wonderful smile and,
  because he was late learning to talk, he still speaks slowly.
  He also tends to greet people with a hug, much the same
  as chimpanzees, and when he hugs you, you know about
  it. It is an incredibly powerful hug."

  Mrs Cook treated 200 people in makeshift premises and
  slept in a hut riddled with bullets from the army of
  Uganda's former dictator, Idi Amin. As she mended teeth,
  often by torchlight, her daughter acted as a nurse.

  "We saw so much poverty," Mrs Cook said, "yet the
  people we met were wonderful."


Complete report at:
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/09/23/timfgnafr01001.html?19967
66


--
Sincerely,
M. Hubey
hubeyh at mail.montclair.edu
http://www.csam.montclair.edu/~hubey
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---Simplicity of character is the result of profound thought.--
Anonymous

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