Feral family may never recover
February 24, 2004 Edition -1
Caiphus Kgosana
It was a tale so shocking that even social workers refused to believe it - until they saw the family with their own eyes.
What they found at a farm at Theunissen, near Welkom in the Free State, was a family cut off from the rest of the world for so long that their four children exhibited animal-like behaviour.
They have been living in isolation on the remote farm for 20 years. The three sons and a daughter, aged 26, 22, 18 and 14, had never been in contact with the outside world.
Three of them do not speak a recognisable language. They shy away from strangers and hide in the nearby mountains. One of them has never slept indoors.
In fact, the children are so mentally handicapped and have been isolated from the outside world for so long that Free State authorities believe they can never be fully integrated into society. It is believed they will never learn to speak properly; neither are they capable of being schooled.
Their father said he began working for his previous employer, a white farmer, back in 1982 when he settled in Theunissen. For years, he claimed, the farmer refused him permission to integrate his children with the outside world, or to send them to school or even to hospital when they were sick.
He said that as his children grew up, he noticed that something was "not right" with them mentally. "When they were young, they spoke like other babies, but as they grew older, they stopped talking."
He said he was baffled by their behaviour and even thought his ancestors might be angry with him.
"I thought that because I could not afford to buy a sheep to perform a traditional ceremony that all our children have to undergo when they are young, the ancestors might be punishing me," said the 65-year-old, who earns R400 a month working on the farm.
The family lived in a dilapidated shack, made of corrugated iron, at an isolated cattle post.
Early this year, the farm was bought by another family. The new owners were not prepared for what they were about to discover.
They were shocked when they saw two of the children running around the shack, one of them leaping up and down like a frog. Their clothes were torn, they were dirty and not in a good physical state, and ran away when they were called.
"I was stunned, I could not believe that people could live like this," the new owner said. "The children were in a terrible state and only responded when called by their father."
He informed social workers in Welkom of the family's situation. "They refused to believe me at first, and I even had to drive one of them to the farm myself to prove that I was serious," he said.
The social worker who went out with him immediately made plans to assist the family.
The children and their 54-year-old mother were taken to a safe place in Welkom, and the Free State Department of Health was informed.
Addressing a press conference yesterday at Bongani Hospital in Welkom, where the family have been accommodated, Free State Health MEC Ouma Sopo said her department had concluded an initial appraisal.
A doctor who initially assessed the family felt it was both a social and a psychological problem, and suggested that a psychiatrist be called in.
Sopo said: "From the reports presented to me, it is clear that the family members have severe cognitive communication deficiency, if compared with the development of an adult of the same age."
She said the family would be sent to the Free State Psychiatric Complex in Bloemfontein for two months.
The province's chief psychiatrist, Professor Johannes Pretorius, said assessments had found that the children were suffering from severe mental retardation, while their mother was moderately retarded. He could not say whether this had been caused by their isolation or exacerbated by it.
The children could be integrated into society, but under close supervision, he said. However, they would never fully learn to speak a language or be able to attend school.
Factbox
Meaning wild, the term "feral" is used by psychologists to refer to children who have been reared in complete or near complete isolation, either through abandonment or confinement. Sometimes they have been treated this way because of an existing impairment or disability.
They often seem mentally impaired and cannot speak, communicating with grunts and gestures. They may also be physically impaired. If raised with animals, they may walk hunched or on all fours, and may mimic animal behaviour.
Some social skills may be learned but attempts to teach language have, in the main, been unsuccessful. Researchers still do not know whether the mental abnormality of feral children is developed before or because of isolation.
The ones most often cited are the cases about which films have been made. The 1994 film Nell, starring Jodie Foster, was based on the story of a woman introduced to society after living for years in isolation.
L'Enfant Sauvage ("The Wild Child") was based on the
unsuccessful efforts to "civilise" Victor, a feral boy who emerged from a forest in France in 1797. Victor learnt to say only two words.
Mockingbird Don't Sing was based on the disturbing story of "Genie", who was discovered at the age of 13 in 1970 in Los Angeles. For 12 years she had been confined to a storage room by her father, strapped to a potty-chair, naked and able only to wriggle her hands and feet. Genie is still institutionalised.
