Ruwa UFO- Twenty Years On

Children tend to be bad liars, despite the frequent times when they make a lot of effort. One thing you'll find is that when they become adults they'll usually confess to lies they've told as children, should anybody recall them. If they don't, then it means that what they said when they were children was almost certainly true, especially if sixty-two of them all agree. If a qualified and experienced child psychologist was present when they were relating their story as children, then in my view it puts their testimony beyond question. And claiming that said testimony is so extraordinary that it "cannot be true!"... because it is so extraordinary, is just a cop-out. It is now twenty years ago to the day, Friday the 16th of September 1994, that children playing in the grounds of a school in Zimbabwe rushed up to their teachers and told them that they'd seen an extraterrestrial craft land and that they'd encountered a being from another world. The reaction from the teachers was incredulity at first, understandably. However as they talked more with their pupils over time they intuitively understood that the children were telling the truth. Who could they turn to for help? Luckily a veteran UFOlogist lived nearby, Cynthia Hind the MUFON representative for Africa who sadly passed away in 2000. Her report forms the basis of what has become one of the most fascinating UFO encounters of all time; one which bears some resemblance to the Westall Incident which I wrote about before, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/was-westall-ufo-balloon.html. Fortunately her research was quickly followed up by the late, great Dr John E Mack. He travelled to Zimbabwe and arrived in December with his assistant Dominique Callimanopulos and interviewed the witnesses on camera.

Ruwa is a small town in the environs of Zimbabwe's capital Harare, surrounded by farmland and forest. On the night of Thursday the 15th of September 1994 many people across the whole of southern Africa reported seeing strange lights in the sky; these were thought to be meteors by astronomers. The following day at about 10:15 AM the children at the Ariel Primary School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe were having a break in the playground when they reported that some unidentified flying objects appeared in the sky. Three of these objects descended to the ground into an area of scrub and small trees at the back of the school where the children were not allowed to wander; however their curiosity got the better of them and they moved out of bounds to find out what had landed. They found the three objects, one much larger than the other two and resembling a classic disk, either resting on or hovering just above the ground. The largest one had a number of muticoloured lights all over it. Standing beside this object was a humanoid figure dressed in a black suit, described as being "like a diver's wetsuit", with long hair. It had very big and highly unusual eyes, "like rugby balls" as one witness put it. When the entity moved it was described as "slow motion running". A second identical entity was reported by the children, but it stayed in the vicinity of the craft. Dr John Mack was able to reach the school within two months of the incident and conducted a series of in depth interviews with the witnesses. These were children aged six to twelve; they were both back and white, and some were of mixed race. They were from privileged backgrounds by Zimbabwean standards; Ariel is a private school and the education available there is the best available in the country. The children had drawn pictures of what they saw which Cynthia Hind and Dr Mack were able to examine. The object reputedly made a loud noise, like "somebody blowing a flute" which frightened the children. They were also alarmed because they'd never seen anything like that before; they feared being abducted. However only a few of them were familiar with the modern Western concept of UFO's and alien abduction; these ideas are not a normal part of society in that region. Even though it never spoke out loud, it seems that the mere presence of the creature put these thoughts into their heads. During their close encounter, some of the children relate that they had what could be described as telepathic communication with the being from the UFO. The being warned the contactees that "the world is going to end if we don't look after the planet properly. All the trees will fall down and there will be no air. People will be dying." This is a common feature of these kinds of experiences. Their teachers also spoke to Dr Mack and Ms Callimanopulos; they reported how the pupils behaved in the aftermath of the encounter. They knew their charges well and the sincerity of their stories made the teachers believe them.

Cynthia Hind said that this is not the first time she's come across a case like this and that it has similarities to an incident she investigated that took place in Broadhaven in Wales; she probably means this one: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread871551/pg1. There are two other more tentative events that happened in two other schools in Zimbabwe that day. The children who witnessed the UFO at the Ariel School in Ruwa are now young adults in their twenties and thirties. A few investigators have tracked them down to do follow-up interviews. This has not been easy since most of them have emigrated. Zimbabwe is a very unhappy country. It has had terrible economic problems and has been ruled by a tyrannical regime since 1980; almost everybody who can afford to get out of the country has done so. Nevertheless some of the witnesses have commented and they all stand by the story they told Dr Mack as six to twelve year olds back in 1994. A few days ago a South African newspaper published a story about a reporter who managed to speak to the last Ruwa witness still living in Zimbabwe. She wished to remain anonymous, the paper calls her "Sarah", but she seems to be quite outspoken about her experience. She was interviewed in a pub and the other people around her were familiar with her story. However she seems disturbed by what she experienced and her memories are clearly painful, see: http://mg.co.za/article/2014-09-04-remembering-zimbabwes-great-alien-invasion. The film maker mentioned in the article, Randall Nickerson, has completed his documentary and it is freely available online at the time of writing, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNcx8YE34Xw. There's no doubt at all, as far as I'm concerned, that something very strange happened that day twenty years ago; all the eyewitness testimony and follow-up researcher is of the best quality. It remains to be seen how much more can be gained from talking to the witnesses today, but I'm glad to see that this work is continuing. Hopefully more answers will come soon about this remarkable close enounter.

See here for Dr Mack's interview video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVgq9gejdkE.

See here for a HPANWO Show interview with Denise David Williams who is making a film about Dr Mack: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/programme-88-podcast-denise-david.html.