Ruwa UFO incident

The UFO incident that changed the lives of 62 children

Name	Ruwa UFO Incident
Occurred on	September 16, 1994
Seen by	Approximately 62 students from Ariel School
Investigated by	Several individuals, including psychiatrist Dr. John E. Mack

The Ruwa UFO Incident has been labeled as one of the most significant extraterrestrial encounters in history. With its numerous witnesses, it can be easily labeled as accurate, but the more one examines its details, the more one realizes its complexity.

What Is the Ruwa UFO Incident About?

On the outskirts of Harare lay Ariel School, a private school for a cross-section of Zimbabweans surrounded by open spaces and fields, where one of the most haunting and strangest UFO sightings in history took place.

Events witnessed by numerous people aren’t new, but what made the Ruwa UFO Incident a standout was that children were its primary observers.

The event occurred coincidentally at around 10 AM on September 16, 1994, when children were out of their classrooms for their mid-morning break. They described what they saw as “disc-like objects” that came along the power lines and landed in the rough, among the trees. Its timely occurrence led to 62 children, between the ages of 6 and 12, curious and frightened by what they experienced.

While the principal event took place on the 16th, the whole chaos it brought stretched into the week and even months after. Here’s its complete timeline:

• September 15: Some children already reported seeing a cigarette-like object with a flashing light.
• September 16 at 10:15 AM: Children witnessed a disc-like object and aliens during their mid-morning break while playing on the field.
• September 16 at 2 PM: BBC correspondent Tim Leach reached out to MUFON investigator Cynthia Hind after hearing about the incident.
• September 17-18: Hind spoke with three students to gather their accounts, contacted the school’s headmaster, and suggested that the children should draw what they saw.
• September 19: Leach revisited the school to interview the headmaster and three children.
• September 20: Hind returned to Ariel School with Leach and a BBC crew. She examined the children’s drawings and interviewed a group of six Grade 7 students and two additional girls.
• December 2-3: Psychiatrist Dr. John E. Mack visited the school, interviewed 12 children, and spoke with the headmaster and several teachers.

Here are some of the children’s drawings:

Source: Imgur

The Telepathic Message Witnesses Received

Aside from collectively seeing the UFO, some children also shared that they had allegedly experienced telepathic communications with the aliens.

They claimed that when they made eye contact with the beings, they received messages about the environment. A few of them believed that these messages were about the impact of people’s actions on the Earth, and urged them to take better care of the planet.

When asked to elaborate on these messages, two girls spoke up:

Girl 1: I think that they want people to know that we’re actually making harm in this world, and we mustn’t get too “technologed.”

Girl 2: It was like in the world, all the trees would just go down, and there would be no air, and people would be dying. I think that in space there’s no love, and down here there is.

Individuals Involved in the Incident

Before we delve into the several interviews that took place, it would be helpful to provide a brief introduction to the people who became involved in the Ruwa UFO Incident.

• Cynthia Hind: Local UFO expert and MUFON’s coordinator for Africa
• Dr. John E. Mack: A Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a psychiatrist, and a professor at Harvard, who was researching the alien abduction phenomenon
• Tineke de Nooij: A Dutch radio and television presenter
• Nicole Carter: An independent producer who worked for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)
• Jill Darke: A Zimbabwean broadcaster for ZBC News
• Michael Hesemann: A German UFO researcher

Interviews and the Witnesses’ Statements

As the Ruwa UFO Incident is among the largest UFO events to have occurred in Africa, it was expected to receive significant attention. Due to this, the children were exposed to several interviews about their experiences, and this report will cover five of those that were documented.

Some of these kept the children’s names hidden, while the others printed them or made aliases. To cross-check their accounts and for you to observe their consistency, we will group statements made by the same person, labeling the interviews they were from.

Note: These statements were transcribed from videos, and those from Michael Hesemann were translated from German. To make the documentation cleaner, we will connect statements into sentences and edit some statements, especially those broken in between questions.

Here are a few more interviews from students who were only interviewed once. Some of them weren’t named, and for this documentation, we’ll label them as Students 1, 2, and so on.

The Debate Surrounding the Witnesses

Sixty-two witnesses can already be a telling sign that what happened at Ariel school must’ve been true. However, there’s still doubt about the event’s accuracy. There are three primary arguments in support and against it:

1. Witnesses’ Demographics

Some believe that the Ruwa UFO Incident can’t be accepted as factual due to the number of witnesses, especially since children are particularly susceptible and gullible to outside influence.

2. Statement Consistency

The children’s consistency throughout interviews is evident, which, to some people, is reflective of the event’s and their statements’ reliability.

3. Mass Hysteria

There is literature that suggests how mass hysteria frequently occurs in Africa, and has cited the Ruwa UFO Incident as an example.

Investigations and Explanations

Like any other UFO event, this incident has left people with more questions than answers.

To further understand what could’ve happened, a few documents attempted to explain or debunk the occurrence. Is it simply a case of mass hysteria that unfortunately hit children, or is it compelling evidence that UFOs exist?

Dust Devils

One of the explanations of the said event was a natural phenomenon called Dust Devils. These are whirlwinds created when dry, highly unstable, and superheated air near the ground shoots upward, forming vortices and are visible due to dust particles.

The report also emphasized that the children were meters away from the site, which can lead to misperceptions. It compared the students’ statements to common features of dust devils.

Students’ Accounts	Dust Devils’ Descriptions
A small white-looking object landed, and when it came closer, it glowed a golden color.	Dust devils are white or golden because the vortices are electrostatically charged, causing a luminous effect.
The craft had multicolored stripes with black, green, and silver.	Dust devils pick up debris, which can appear as multicolored stripes from a distance.
The silver object made a flute-like noise.	Some whirlwinds create acoustic noises due to electromagnetic fields.

In September 1994, Africa was experiencing a severe drought, which could cause the ground to become stiff and dry. Dust devils may be rare, but they’re a common occurrence in dry-land areas with hot temperatures.

Puppetry

Another alleged explanation for the Ruwa UFO Incident was that the children saw puppets, not aliens.

The African Research and Educational Puppetry Programme (AREPP) is an organization that uses applied theater puppetry to educate children. It’s aimed to have them think and reflect deeply about what they saw. Coincidentally, AREPP had a project in 1994 called Puppets Against Abuse.

Aliens vs. Puppets

How the children described the aliens’ appearance aligned with how the organization’s puppets looked:

• Grey or black
• Large head and big eyes
• Stiff necks
• Running in slow motion
• Running up and down a spaceship

Telepathic Communication vs. Effective Puppet Show

Regarding the alleged telepathic communication between the beings and the children, this aligns with AREPP’s fundamental goal of eliciting a reaction from its audience. It’s believed that what the children experienced was more of a personal epiphany than a telepathic message from aliens.

Spaceship vs. Van

In terms of the spaceship the children allegedly saw, the author believed it was the organization’s Volkswagen T3 Microbus.

A Prank to Leave Class

Years after its occurrence, an individual stepped forward claiming that the Ruwa UFO Incident was all a ruse to get out of class. Dallyn claimed that he and a friend came up with the crazy idea of acting as though they saw a spaceship, which spiralled out of control and left the school buzzing.

Here’s what he said during his interview:

Maybe they truly believe they’d seen it, but I’m sorry to tell you that it never happened. They’re lying to themselves.

A Distorted Mundane Event

Some people believed that the children saw something. Their statements throughout the interviews weren’t meant to be deceptive or a prank played to seek attention.

However, people believed that Cynthia Hind and Dr. John E. Mack were not accepting the possibility that what they saw was something mundane. After all, both of them approached the scene with a specific conclusion in mind.

Cynthia was representing MUFON, while Dr. Mack was already years into his alien abduction research. These were why both of them must’ve ignored the possibility that the children might’ve just been mistaken.

They indeed saw something, but what happened was they fed off each other’s panic and created a narrative about aliens that these interviewers were quick to validate.

The Ruwa UFO Incident’s Significance in Ufology

The incident remains at the center of debates, making it still one of the most significant UFO events in history.

The children, now adults, who experienced it still stand by what they saw. Most of them still won’t even willingly look back at what they can remember, as if merely thinking about that day will bring back nightmares they’ve had as children. Skeptics may easily question the demographics, but the belief these individuals have in what they experienced can be enough proof of the Ruwa UFO Incident.

For those interested in learning more, one of its witnesses, Randall Nickerson, has created a documentary about it titled the Ariel Phenomenon. The film features numerous interviews with witnesses and archival footage of the event in question.

Curious about other UFO sightings and theories? Visit UFO Connect to explore more fascinating UFO stories, documentaries that continue to shape how we view the unknown.

FAQ

How does the Ruwa incident compare to the Westall UFO sighting in Australia?

Both of these incidents are well-known cases of mass sightings involving children. The difference is that the Ruwa UFO Incident is a single event, while the Westall UFO sighting is a series of observations.

What did skeptics say about the Ruwa UFO case?

They believed that the incident was a mundane occurrence that could’ve been explained by dust devils or misperception, but was exaggerated or distorted into a UFO event.

Was the Ruwa sighting possibly a misidentified weather phenomenon?

Yes, some skeptics believe that the incident was a result of dust devils or whirlwinds created by dry, unstable, and superheated dry air that shoots upwards.