Southern Africa Unexplained

Case No 133 · UFO Afrinews No 17, February 1998 (cover); masthead printed as January 1998

CLOSE ENCOUNTER IN MUTARE

1988 · Pasture Avenue, Hospital Hill, Mutare (polo-cross field where horses are kept), Feruka Oil Refinery, Mutare, Zimbabwe

What was reported

Stuart, a primary school teacher then 25 or 26, was walking from Mutare General Hospital down Pasture Avenue past a field of horses. About 100 m up hung a bluish-grey rugby-ball-shaped object with spikes on its sides, turning slowly anticlockwise, its green, blue and orangey-red lights dimming in stages. He could neither speak nor move; all was silent but for a faint high-pitched winding hum that seemed to come from inside him. A girl nearby ignored his shouts and the horses stood rigid. When the sound resumed the horses bolted and the object climbed away west toward the Feruka refinery. Hours seemed to pass, yet he was home within 45-50 minutes. Afterwards: premonitions of deaths, drinking, floating dreams, an oozing left-ear fungus since 1988, and a 1995 X-ray showing a cleanly severed left rib.

What Hind made of it

Hind treats it seriously: she wrote back asking about paralysis, timing and sounds, had Stuart narrow the date from his brother's school grade, obtained the address of the girl's house to check her hearing, and is arranging an ear, nose and throat specialist in Harare to test whether the ear discharge is natural or an implant; she promises to keep reporting.

Explanation offered
Doctor suggested he may have been born without the rib, which Stuart denies and which the doctor himself doubted because the other ribs are normal

In their words

  • When I looked at it, I could not speak or move. The whole area seemed to be silent; it was quite frightening.

    Stuart, spread 5

  • There always seems to be total silence, yet a distant hum!

    Stuart, spread 6

  • The missing rib has me baffled.

    Stuart, spread 7

Cross references

  • UFO AFRINEWS No 18 (July 1998) promised follow-up
  • UAP Effects article in this issue
  • Manica Post (local newspaper phoned by witness)

Connected

  • Stuart of Mutare: the missing rib and the ear implant question (follow-up)Case fileHind follow-up

    Stuart of Mutare, Case 133: Afrinews 18 update on the missing rib and Jonathan Wigham's letter pressing for an ENT X-ray for an implant. No new observation.

  • Follow up: Stuart of MutareCase fileHind follow-up

    Hind and Maria Sullivan drove 260 km from Harare to Mutare on 17 Sep 1998 to see Stuart: ear suppuration stopped, no old X-rays at the Central Medical Registry, doctors do not recall the rib, the girl's house on Huxley Close deserted. Note 17-05-1's coordinates are the Feruka refinery (the object's stated heading), not Hospital Hill where the event happened; 19-11-1 (Florida suburb) is nearer the true site.

  • UAP Effects: Stuart of Mutare, the missing rib and the suppurating earsCase fileHind follow-up

    UFO Effects article recap: Stuart's wife puts the episode at about half an hour; the ENT examination was dropped in Oct 1998 when the discharge stopped. Adds 'football-shaped' for the object (rugby-ball in 17-05-1).

  • Stuart of Mutare: paralysis and silence (reference)Case fileHind follow-up

    Three footnotes in Afrinews 22 use Stuart as Hind's benchmark for paralysis and silence, comparing him to Yusuf A. (Case 154) and Kirsty (Case 156) and to the COMETA report's paralysis discussion.

  • Fireball and three shining men at La RochelleCase fileSame behaviour

    Witness immobilised in the presence of the object or beings: Muchena felled and unable to move until fireball and figures had gone (1981); Stuart unable to speak or move, with a hum 'inside him', until the object left (1988). Independent events seven years apart, but Hind explicitly pairs them in Afrinews 17, and Stuart came forward in 1998 when both were in print.

  • Unexplained Balls of Light: 1990, St Augustine MissionCase fileSame behaviour

    Schoolboy Nyasha Dhlinnyo fell to the ground as the object hovered over him (1990); Stuart paralysed under a hovering object (1988). Dhlinnyo attributes his fall to fear; the 'pressure' idea is Hind's. Both involve a hum. Independent witnesses.

  • The Irene Township Sighting, 1975Case fileSame behaviour

    Both objects depart with sudden acceleration after a stationary phase: Irene 1975 'tipped and shot up and away as fast as lightning'; Stuart 1988 'climbed away' west and accelerated. Generic UAP-narrative feature, independent witnesses.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 17 (February 1998 (cover); masthead printed as January 1998), spread 5-8

In the archive

This case became a story on this site.

1988 · Zimbabwe

The horses on Hospital Hill

A teacher on a short cut past the polo-cross field could not move or speak, and the horses stood with heads up. Nine years on, he wrote to Hind about a rib.

LIFTLiftACCAcceleration
Single witness

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