Ariel School Report (cont.)

What was reported

Hind's continuation of the Ariel School case from No 11. Dr John Mack spent two days interviewing the children and will report himself. Gunter Hofer took soil samples from mapped spots within a week; the Chemistry and Soil Research Institute analysed them free and Dr Keith Viewing found only insignificant anomalies, recommending the Institute of Mining Research next. The children consistently pointed to two landing spots: the craft came in along the power line and touched down at the third pole, and the small figures emerged at a second point. Quoted statements describe silver, disc-shaped objects glinting among trees, a one-metre figure in tight shiny black with long straight hair and big eyes running back and forth, and objects rising a metre before vanishing. Black children called it a Tokolosh, white children an alien. Headmaster Colin Mackie is sure they saw something. Hind rejects mass hysteria.

What Hind made of it

Impressed by the children's honesty and confidence; rejects the hysteria comparison; nothing proved either way but 'a statement is being made'; intends an ongoing investigation

Explanation offered
Mass hysteria suggested by a friend and rejected; one boy first took the figure for Mrs Stevens' gardener; Fiona thought the dark thing might be a branch; Daniel M. first thought it someone from the labourers' compound

In their words

• I don't believe or disbelieve, but they definitely saw SOMETHING.

• I could see their big eyes and long hair. I definitely saw them!

• None of this proves anything, one way or another, but one cannot help feeling that a statement is being made.

Cross references

• UFO Afrinews No 11
• Footnote: long black hair description in No 11
• Dr John Mack's own forthcoming report
• Institute of Mining Research, University of Zimbabwe
• Tim Leach of the BBC
• Figures 2 to 5 (map and drawings)
• 12-06-2 cigar object the day before
• 12-09-1 Mrs Stevens' orange glow

Connected

• The Children of Ariel SchoolCase fileHind follow-up

  Continuation in No 12: Dr John Mack's two days of interviews, Gunter Hofer's soil samples analysed free by the Chemistry and Soil Research Institute (Dr Keith Viewing: insignificant anomalies), and the children's two landing spots along the power line.

• Mrs Stevens' orange glow over the chicken houseCase fileNamed person

  Mrs Stevens appears in both: one boy first took the black-clad figure for her gardener until he noticed its long straight hair, and she separately reported the pre-dawn orange glow.

• Lilfordia Road LandingCase fileSame behaviour

  Two men in shiny black overalls climbing out of a landed silent craft in a field near Harare, October 1996; one-metre figures in tight shiny black suits beside a landed craft at Ruwa, September 1994. Hind notes the farmer's shout may have meant tokoloshes, the same frame the black Ariel children used. Lilfordia came two years after Ariel's saturation coverage on Zimbabwean TV and radio.

• The Circle in the GrassCase fileHind follow-up

  Hind's standard trace procedure appears twice: ring, centre and control soil samples to the government Chemistry and Soil Research Institute (Mr Fenner, Cleveland Park, December 1989: pH 6.1 in the ring against 6.6; Dr Viewing, Ariel, 1994: insignificant anomalies).

• Lilfordia Road LandingCase fileNamed person

  Gunter Hofer took the Ariel soil samples (12-06-1), examined the closed gate at Featherstone (15-05-1) and is named in the Lilfordia account (16-19-1): one Harare investigator on three of the cluster's four landing or trace cases of 1994-96.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 12 (July 1995), spread 06-10

In the archive

This case became a story on this site.

1994 · Zimbabwe

The Ariel School encounter

Sixty-two children at break time said something silver came down beside the playground, and drew the same thing for weeks.

LIFTLift

Documented

Nearby

Stories within 60 km

• The circle of light on Mazowe Dam 1968 · 49 km
• The elliptical sausage over Lake McIlwaine 1954 · 51 km
• The tsotsis on Lilfordia Road 1996 · 52 km