La Rochelle recap and Clifford Muchena on the 'ancestors'

What was reported

Hind recaps La Rochelle as background to Case 6. On the dull, overcast evening of 15 August 1981, twenty estate workers coming home at about six saw a ball of fire a metre across skip over the lawns, reach the buildings, run up the wall of a three-storey observation tower and blaze up. Foreman Clifford Muchena rang the alarm bell; the flames drew back into a ball, swept down past him and flared again inside a small building called The Fantasy. He then noticed three figures watching the blaze, took one for supervisor Andrew Connolly and called out. They turned slowly; light from their heads blinded him and a paralysing force felled him. When the light faded the night was empty. Asked later who the figures were, Muchena said his ancestors; Hind objected that ancestors wore skins, not silver coveralls.

What Hind made of it

Hind challenged Muchena's interpretation of the figures as ancestral spirits, pointing out that ancestors wore furs and skins whereas these figures wore silver coveralls; Muchena replied that times change.

Explanation offered
Ancestral spirits visiting (witness's own cultural interpretation)

In their words

• Your ancestors wore furs and skins, but these 'men' were wearing silver coveralls.

• Yes, I know that, but times change.......

• looking back, saw that the night was black and empty.

Cross references

• Case 6: An Extension of La Rochelle? (pp 8-10)
• earlier coverage of the La Rochelle case by Hind

Connected

• Fireball and three shining men at La RochelleCase fileNamed person

  Same event, La Rochelle 15 Aug 1981, foreman Clifford Muchena and supervisor Andrew Connolley/Connolly in both. 02-06-2 is Hind's own recap in Afrinews 2 as background to the sawmill case, not a second account; it adds 'dull, overcast' weather and a paralysing force. Its coordinates are the Mutare city-centre default, the event site is 01-07-1's (Imbeza valley, Penhalonga, c.9 km NNE).

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 2 (June 1989), spread 06-07

In the archive

This case became a story on this site.

1981 · Zimbabwe

The fireball at La Rochelle

A ball of fire rolled across the lawns and up the tower of the Courtaulds' old house. Then three men in shiny overalls turned round, and the foreman went down.

LIFTLift

Documented

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