Southern Africa Unexplained

Case No 13 · UFO Afrinews No 3, May 1990

Buckmasters Farm Case, May 1951

1951 · Buckmasters Farm, adjacent to Marlborough Township, Salisbury (now Harare), Harare, Zimbabwe

What was reported

Mr T.P.F. was resting after dental surgery at Buckmasters Farm beside Marlborough Township, Salisbury, on a clear calm autumn day in May 1951 when his wife woke him around 4 pm to see something in the sky. Approaching slowly from the north was an object like two shallow elliptical dishes, one inverted on the other, greyish metallic and sunlit on its western side, with no sound, lights or wobble. It grew to soup-plate size, looked almost circular with a satin stainless-steel finish, then stopped and hovered. A motorist asking directions looked up, gasped and fled. The object turned 90 degrees west towards Sinoia, receded to half size, then shot vertically upward and shrank to a pinhead. His wife, daughter and about thirty Shona farm workers watched for 20 to 25 minutes; he estimated 15 to 20 m across at 400 to 600 m up.

What Hind made of it

Printed as a previously unreported case with an editor's gloss on the Shona words used by the labourers; the Rhodesia Herald reporter told the witness there was no civil, military or meteorological air activity and that other reports had been received.

Explanation offered
None; balloons and aircraft excluded by the newspaper's checks

In their words

  • There is something up in the sky which you should see

    Mr T.P.F.'s ex-wife, spread 11

  • He got out of his car to look, gasped in horrified awe, got back in his car and drove off rapidly

    Mr T.P.F., spread 12

  • The Africans' reaction was not fear, but awe and wonderment

    Mr T.P.F., spread 12

Cross references

  • Rhodesia Herald (now The Herald)

Connected

  • Sqn Ldr Roberts' Tiger Moth and the elliptical sausage, Lake ChiveroCase fileSame behaviour

    Two shallow dishes one inverted on the other, greyish metallic, silent, hovering then shooting off (Buckmasters Farm, Marlborough, May 1951); two saucers one above the other, silver-grey, stopping dead, hovering, departing at incredible speed (Tiger Moth near Lake Chivero, 1954). Both Salisbury-area daylight cases from the worldwide saucer years; both checked with aviation authorities at the time (Herald: no air activity; Belvedere flying control: radar down).

  • Cases Not Previously Reported: Report from John Flanagan of Bulawayo (Honey Dew farm, Chivhu, 1954)Case fileSame window

    1951 and 1954 daylight silver saucers, both reported to the Rhodesia Herald at the time and both reaching Hind decades later as previously unreported cases; both had large groups of African farm workers among the witnesses.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 3 (May 1990), spread 11-12

Nearby

Stories within 60 km