Roland Roeis: the three-eyed soapstone figurine and the Batonga 'Outsiders'

What was reported

Responding to the 'Alien with a Satchel' drawing in issue 15, Roeis describes a small soapstone figurine he bought years ago in Windhoek: three eyes, an elongated head and a sack on its back, from a tribe he remembers as Mazombe. A clairvoyant acquaintance in Berlin told him its story: an ageing medicine man carved figurines of the friendly spirit world to train his successor, but died before finishing, so a tribesman sold them to white traders and they scattered into collections. The figure represents 'Outsiders', beings who brought the Batonga technology and healing in exchange for noble metals; the bag means giver of knowledge, the three eyes all-seeing. They project their being from another dimension, and some abduct and harm. Roeis links the rugby-ball head to statuettes from Zaire, Zambia and Zimbabwe, rock paintings and the practice of head-binding.

What Hind made of it

Editors print it as good-quality work but warn it reflects a more controversial attitude than their own.

In their words

• According to my source, they are all extraterrestrials (or faint memories thereof).

• they might reflect a more controversial attitude than perhaps your Editor/s would themselves take

Cross references

• Case No 122, UFO Afrinews No 15 p16
• UFO Afrinews No 15 p23 (Mars item)
• O Kiss-Maerth, The Beginning was the End
• Sitchin, The 12th Planet

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 16 (July 1997), spread 16-17

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