African Schoolchildren See Landed UFO and Occupant - Ruwa, Zimbabwe - September 16, 1994

Summary: On 14th September, 1994, a UFO streaked across the sky over Southern Africa. Two days later, something landed in a schoolyard in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, with three or four things beside it, according to journalist Cynthia Hind. This was witnessed by 62 schoolchildren, who had little or no exposure to TV or popular press accounts of UFOs. Cynthia Hind interviewed them the day after the encounter and made them draw pictures of what they had seen.


One of the children's drawings of the encounter




More drawings by the children of the craft and occupants




Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe



The Children of Ariel School - Case No. #96. Ruwa, Zimbabwe
UFO AFRINEWS 1994
By Cynthia Hind

On Friday 16th September, at approximately 10:15, 62 children from Ariel School, a private primary school in Ruwa (about 20 km from Harare) were in their playing field for the mid-morning break. Suddenly, they saw three silver balls in the sky over the school. These disappeared with a flash of light and then reappeared elsewhere. This happened three times and then they started to move down towards the school with one of them landing (or hovering) over a section of rough ground made up of trees, thorn bushes, and some brown-grey cut grass with bamboo shoots sticking up out of the ground. The children are not allowed in this area although it is adjacent to their playing field and is not fenced off, because of snakes, spiders and perhaps other harmful creatures. One can soon disappear from view while walking here, and there is only one very rough track used by tractors in an attempt to clear this area.

There is a line of electricity pylons and according to one boy, the object followed along this line prior to landing. There is also some controversy as to whether the object _landed_ on the ground or hovered above it. On Tuesday, 20th September, I went out to the school with a BBC reporter and their television equipment, as well as my son and Gunter Hofer, a young man who builds his own electrical equipment, viz, a Geiger counter, a metal detector and a magnetometer, to try and see if the object left any traces behind.

The headmaster of the school is Mr. Colin Mackie, who was most co-operative, and although he had never been involved with UFOs or a believer in them, said that he believed the children had seen what they said they saw.

I was able to interview about 10 or 12 older children and this was recorded for BBC television.

One eyewitness, Barry D., said he had seen three objects flying over, with flashing red lights. They disappeared, and reappeared almost immediately, but somewhere else. This happened about three times. Then they came and landed near some gum trees; Barry said the main one (object) was about the size of his thumb nail held at arm's length. The reports were similar although some children were more observant than others. The consensus of opinion was that an object came down in the area where they indicated, about 100 metres from where they were at the edge of the school playing field. Then a small man (approx 1 metre in height) appeared on top of the object. He walked a little way across the rough ground, became aware of the children and disappeared. He, or someone very like him, then reappeared at the back of the object. The object took off very rapidly and disappeared. The little man was dressed in a tight-fitting black suit which was 'shiny' according to one observant girl (11 years of age). He had a long scrawny neck and huge eyes like rugby balls. He had a pale face with long black hair coming below his shoulders.

I had suggested to Mr. Mackie prior to visiting the school and before the children had been interviewed, that he let the children draw what they had seen and he now has about 30-40 drawings, some of which are very explicit and clear, although some are rather vague. The children's' ages vary from 5/6 to 12 years. I have 22 photocopies of the clearer drawings as Mr. Mackie kindly allowed me to page through the pictures and choose those I wanted. Most of the descriptions are similar but some of the craft are very obviously 'flying saucers', and I wonder how many of these children have had access to the media. Others are crude but more or less in this saucer shape.

The children vary in cultures: there are black, white, coloured and Asian children. One little girl said to me, 'I swear by every hair on my head and the whole Bible that I am telling the truth.' I could see the pleasure on her face when I told her that I believed her. The smaller children from 5-7 years were very frightened at the time and ran shouting 'Help me, help me.' When the older children asked why they were saying this, the reply was, 'He is coming to eat us.' I should think this applied more to the black African children who have legends of _tokoloshies_ eating children.

Their teachers were in a meeting and did not come out. When I queried the headmaster about this he said the children always shouted and yelled during their playtime and no-one thought there was anything unusual going on. The only other adult available at the time was one of the mothers who was running the tuckshop. When the children came to call her, she did not believe them and would not come out: she was not prepared to leave the tuckshop with all the food and money. Gunter and the men thoroughly examined the ground around where the children had seen the object, but could get no reaction on the geiger counter or any other equipment. If the object was hovering perhaps nothing would show.

I walked, on my own, along the electricity pylons for quite a away, caught up in thorn bushes, trampling blithely over snake holes and discarding all caution. I found no place where some object could have landed and pressed down the foliage. In fact, I should think the bamboo stumps would have been a deterrent. The day was hot, around 33 C (91F)...

Dr John Mack was visiting Zimbabwe at the time of the event, and he spent two days at Ariel School with the children. He also spoke to the Headmaster, Colin Mackie, the teachers and some of the parents. John and his fellow researcher, Dominique Callimanopulos, were able to get through to the parents and teachers and convince them that even if they did not believe the children, it was counter-productive to accuse them of lying. Listen and think about what they were saying, he advised. His particular interest in child psychiatry was also of great use during the questioning and many former hidden memories came to light, something John is sure to make public when he has had a chance to reassess his interviewing.(sic)

There is a lot more to this incident than has been uncovered now and we will report further in UFO AFRINEWS No. 12.


http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case127.htm
http://www.ufoevidence.org/Cases/CaseSubarticle.asp?ID=129
http://www.ufoevidence.org/Cases/CaseSubarticle.asp?ID=130

South African TV Reports on Zimbabwe UFO sighting

Summary: Tonight at 8.30 SA time we were treated to the rare spectacle of a half a dozen CHILDREN AGED 8-12 attesting ON tv to the fact that a group of them had seen a group of four or five UFOs.

ZIMBABWE UFO REPORT
SCREENED ON SOUTH AFRICAN TV
CHANNEL 1 PROGRAM AGENDA

Tonight at 8.30 SA time we were treated to the rare spectacle of a half a dozen CHILDREN AGED 8-12 attesting ON tv to the fact that a group of them had seen a group of four or five UFOs. Sentients with large eyes, long black hair wearing shiny black one piece suits had made themselves known. The ships had then departed. The witnesses to this encounter are a group of schoolchildren at the Areal School in a town called Ruwa not far from the capital of Harare. The date is 16 September 1994. Cynthia Hind, Southern Africa's most well known UFOlogist had a few words to say, but the children stole her show with their innocent and honest faces. They had all drawn crayon pictures of the craft. The pictures were all the same.. This I saw with my own eyes. We had Dr. John Mack on the same show. What is he doing in Africa? But the star of the show was the South African Sangoma Wiseman CREDO MUTWA. He is well known for his disturbingly correct prophecies. One of these was the prediction of Hendrik Verwoerds assassination. Credo Mutwa stormed the program with figurines of aliens looking exactly like the various races we suspect to co-inhabit our planet with us. These figurines have long been in the possession of the African nations. He attested to the fact that the African nations co-exited with aliens in Africa for hundreds if not thousands of years. He made the disturbing allegation that the Europeans who first 'colonised' Africa were mistaken for these 'other,' star people. Credo Mutwa has also said that AIDS can be cured by a SONIC SCAN or AUDIO FREQUENCY scan of some kind. This does not harm the person, only the virus. Surely this is worth investigating? There is a video available of his prophecies. He is very convincing! And Frightening!

http://www.ufoevidence.org/Cases/CaseSubarticle.asp?ID=131

September 16, 1994. At the Ariel School, a typical morning would soon turn into a once in a lifetime event for teachers and students. Suddenly, during a morning recess, students began to report that a UFO had landed near the school. The students ranged in age from 5-12 years of age.

In total, there were 62 children outside of the school at the time, and most of the teachers were inside the school at a meeting. It was reported that only one adult was supervising the recess that morning, a mother of one of the children. She operated a snack bar for the students, selling soft drinks, candies, and other favorites.

There had been reports of UFOs in the skies over Zimbabwe only two days before, but it is unlikely that any of the students were aware of these reports. Ariel was a private elementary school, hosting students of all backgrounds. Several of the children stated that they had seen three unknown flying objects in the skies over the school prior to the landing. Students saw the UFOs disappear then reappear in a different place in the sky. Finally, at least one of the UFOs either landed, or hovered just above the ground.

The UFO was only about 100 meters from the students at play. The object was in a heavily wooded area, which was off limits to the students for safety concerns. Soon, what the students described as a "small man" could be seen on the top of the UFO. The occupant of the craft was described as being about one meter (3 ft.) tall, with a slender neck, long black hair, and very large eyes. He walked down the craft, and proceeded in the direction of the children.

When he noticed the children, he disappeared, and was next seen in the back of the UFO. Within moments, the craft took off, vanishing into the sky over the school. Many of the children were understandably frightened, the little man had evoked many stories they had heard about demons and ghosts. Some of the children ran to the mother who was attending the snack bar, but she did not believe their story, and continued with her duties.

Two of Ufology's most respected investigators researched the Ariel School sighting. Cynthia Hind, now deceased, was known as Africa's top notch researcher, and she was at the school the next day. She requested the school's headmaster, Colin Mackie, to ask the children to make drawings of what they had seen the day before. When Hind arrived at the school, there were some 35 various drawings and sketches waiting for her. They were very similar in their depictions of the craft and being.

Mackie told Hind that she felt the children were telling the truth about what they had seen. One of the students, a young girl, told Hind, "I swear by every hair on my head and the whole Bible that I am telling the truth."

Also, Dr. John Mack, along with researcher Dominique Callimanopulos visited Ruwa. The two men spent two days doing interviews with 12 of the children and their parents. A few of the older students related that they felt they had communicated with the craft's occupants. They were informed that we were were destroying Earth by polluting it, and unless we changed our ways, we would face a failing planet.

The Ruwa, Zimbabwe school sighting soon became news around the world, and was the subject of an episode of TV's "Sightings." Numerous interviews with witnesses have been released on the Internet, and it is considered one of the best "close encounter" cases in UFO history.

http://ufos.about.com/od/ufohistory/a/ruwa.htm

Ariel School UFO Sighting Video: Production Underway in 2007

In 1994, Harvard Professor of Psychiatry John E. Mack, M.D. traveled to Zimbabwe with research associate Dominique Callimanopulos to study one of the most extraordinary sightings of a UFO in recent times. At the Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, sixty-two children between the ages of eight and twelve reported seeing a UFO and “strange beings” during morning recess.

In 2007, on behalf of the John E. Mack Institute, Dominique Callimanopulos will undertake production of a non-commercial, edited video program presenting John Mack’s interviews with the schoolchildren and faculty.

These interviews constitute one of the most impressive UFO sighting and alien encounter cases in recent history, and serve as an exemplary demonstration of the interviewing skills and sensitivity John Mack exercised when working with people reporting extraordinary experiences.

The goal of producing this video program is to preserve the historical record of this compelling case in a format that can be accessible to students and educators.

The program is being made from original Betacam footage that was shot between November 28 and December 6, 1994.

http://www.johnemackinstitute.org/center/center_news.asp?id=314

In 1994, Pulitzer-prize winning Harvard psychiatrist Dr. John E. Mack went to Zimbabwe, Africa to investigate an unusual occurrence. One morning in September 60 children at a small private school outside the capital of Harare reported seeing oval shaped objects hover over their playground at recess and strange beings make their way across their schoolyard.

Encounter in Ruwa: The Ariel School Sighting is the story of Dr. Mack’s research and the journey a young film maker took up 14 years later—retracing Dr. Mack’s footsteps and research and ultimately uncovering evidence of a much more widespread incident.

We invite you to a presentation and screening of some of the first and latest footage shot about this record of “extraordinary experience”.

Dr. Mack put his reputation on the line when he publicly explored the UFO and alien abduction phenomenon in the 1990’s. Almost 5 years after Dr. Mack’s death, and 17 years after he began his research, what do we make of this phenomenon?

Encounter in Ruwa is one of the most dramatic examples of the phenomenon, reported by some of the most credible witnesses. Come keep us company for an evening of heady exploration, fascinating unseen film footage, and a first hand account of this absorbing case by Randy Nickerson, who retraced Dr. Mack’s footsteps. Dominique Callimanopulos, who traveled with Dr. Mack to Africa in 1994, will also be present.

http://www.johnemackinstitute.org/center/center_news.asp?id=328