Of all the athletes who competed at Carolina over the years, there is no one in the same ballpark as Dunia Sibomana-Rodriguez. His life-changing moment occurred when he was six years old and survived an attack from vicious chimpanzees in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The 18-year-old UNC prodigy who is on a wrestling scholarship told the New York Post after winning the national high school champion association title at 123 pounds, “I was with my family, and the animals came out of nowhere.”
The chimps killed his brother and cousin, and Dunia was left extremely disfigured. The primates mauled his face and lips, bit off his left middle finger and his right ear, destroyed a chunk of his left forearm and left other scars across the poor child’s body.
At the age of eight, Dunia came the United States for rare reconstructive surgery at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital in New York. The non-profit Smile Rescue Fund for Kids identifies children in resource-poor countries who need facial or cranial work at no charge.
“I’ve had about sixteen surgeries now,” added Dunia, who speaks softly, now due to lasting damage around his mouth. Life was hard enough before the tragedy, and his impoverished family struggled to make ends meet. Things got only worse after he became physically deformed.
“He was sent out to the street to beg to bring money into his house,” said Dunia’s adoptive father, Long Beach assistant wrestling coach Miguel Rodriguez. “Those are some of the things he had to do as a child.”
“I kind of had to go with the flow,” said Dunia whose birth parents have since died.
As if he wasn’t different enough, the young immigrant’s only native language was Swahili when he first came to America. He now speaks fluent English.
“It took a little while to fit in, meet new people and get people to like me,” Dunia admitted. That all changed when he visited the South Shore of Long Island more than a decade ago.
Dunia went to Long Beach as part of a program run by the local shop Skudin Surf, which teaches kids with physical and cognizant disabilities how to swim. It was the first time he had ever splashed in the water.
Miguel Rodriguez and his 18-year-old state champion heavyweight son, Elijah, were working at a deli when a friend told them that Dunai was down at the shore. The family spent time looking after another young wrestler, Isaiah Bird, who was born without legs and defied the odds to succeed on the mat.
They were all eager to meet Dunai after hearing of his plight. Isaiah said, “What happened to your face?” Dunia pointed back to where his legs were supposed to be and retorted “what happened to your legs?” They all went to the beach and started playing and surfing, and they became friends.
After living with two host families, Dunia was officially adopted by the Sibomana-Rodriguez clan in middle school and he has thrived in the same sport since fourth grade. He made the Long Beach Marines varsity roster as an eighth grader and has since won five Nassau County titles and three straight championships on top of his recent national achievement, which he said “meant a lot in his final year of high school,” after placing second in the 11th grade.
He committed to UNC as a junior and was named county wrestler of the year for the second straight time. He loved Long Beach, New York, and has fallen in love with his new home college town Chapel Hill.
“This is my dream school, and I’ve worked really hard for this college opportunity,” Dunia said. “I just felt right when I visited the school. They coaches were just great, and I felt right at home in North Carolina. It is where I want to spend the next four or five years of my life. I am blessed to be where I am. I wouldn’t be here without my family and coaches.”
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Dalton T. Wainscott
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs on 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro during football and basketball seasons.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
