Every trick is being used to cast doubt on the testimonies of these children. They have now grown up and stick to their position on what they have seen. Is it really so difficult to understand that they sometimes just tell the truth? In other words: it can't be true, so it won't be true.
What about the testimony of the majority of children who saw nothing unusual? The incident supposedly occurred over at least 10 minutes.
Did they lack some quality possessed by the claimed witnesses?
(And why did
every claimed witness wait until the event- and, it would seem, breaktime- was over before contacting an adult?)
External Quote:
It was the midmorning break on September 16, 1994. 250 schoolchildren were all outside playing at the Ariel School... The adult faculty were all inside having a staff meeting and none of them witnessed what happened. 62 of the children saw it (aged 6 to 12); nearly 200 did not.
Brian Dunning, Skeptoid blog 29/12/20, The 1994 Ruwa Zimbabwe Alien Encounter
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4760
The number of children who reported seeing
something may have been as high as 62; the number who claimed to see an alien or aliens is lower, posing the question, why didn't all the witnesses see them?
Why did Cynthia Hind and John Mack concentrate their attention on some (IIRC) about 15 witnesses, apparently chosen on the basis of their accounts and drawings? An alien craft landing would be an event of extreme importance; even evidence from less eloquent children / less gifted artists, or those who didn't see aliens, might contain significant information.
As far as I can tell, a small number of claimed witnesses, now adults, "stick to their position".
Of those that do, I think their claims are interesting but not necessarily convincing as reports of objective reality:
External Quote:
When the kids returned to class they were completely freaked and couldn't stop nattering about little men who looked a bit like Michael Jackson.
"Sarah" (not real name), claimed witness, interviewed for "Remembering Zimbabwe's great alien invasion", Sean Christie,
Mail & Guardian (South Africa) 4 September 2014
https://mg.co.za/article/2014-09-04-remembering-zimbabwes-great-alien-invasion/. (One child said the alien was wearing a headband, see below).
External Quote:
All of a sudden they were in front of us. I'd describe them as being about an arm's reach.
Emily T, claimed witness, speaking as an adult, quoted in blog
Three-Dollar Kit, which has an excellent account of events;
https://threedollarkit.weebly.com/ariel-drawings.html.
(Three-Dollar Kit is well worth a good read, and is authored by Metabunker
@Charlie Wiser).
Strangely, although adult Emily says she saw the aliens just feet away, she didn't draw any when the children were asked to draw what they had seen in 1994.
If we very generously give Emily T. an arm's reach of about 1m/ 3 feet 3", then even allowing for a bit of misremembering or poor distance estimation- let's say a factor of 10- the alien is still only 10 metres (32 feet 6 inches) away; roughly the length of a bus, well beyond an arm's reach but easily close enough to see in detail on a sunny 10:00 a.m. across modestly scrubby ground.
Close enough to tell if someone is bald or has long hair, for instance.
Some children drew apparently bald or maybe short-haired figures, some drew (and commented on) figures with conspicuously long black hair. I think school-age children capable of drawing these features can tell the difference.
None reported, or drew, both types. Well; not until many years later...
(Original footnote text, from Three-Dollar Kit, ibid.) Note that Lisel's drawing some 20-plus years after the event now includes a long-haired figure, like
some of the other original accounts, but
not like Lisel's original account.
It appears that the recollection of two of the small number of "remaining" adult witnesses (Emily T., Lisel) has changed significantly over time (a very real, common phenomenon).
Contemporary Ariel School drawings of long-haired aliens:
(Pictures cropped to focus on "alien"). From blog Three-Dollar Kit, ibid.
Also from Ariel School (includes Lisel's original drawing):
-First two pics from Cynthia Hind's UFO Afrinews, July 1995, PDF in earlier post.
Daniel M. saw a figure with hair "...like a hippy's hair, long and black", Emily B. saw "longish black hair", Luke N. and Guy G. reported "their" aliens had long black hair. (UFO Afrinews July 1995).
Incidentally, Guy G. was described by Cynthia Hind (the original local researcher) as the most articulate witness; she adds that his parents didn't believe him; Hind describes this as a "tragedy" and
External Quote:
...a frightening indictment of our society...
(UFO Afrinews, Feb 1995, pg. 21, PDF in earlier post).
A school letting a self-appointed researcher interview children, who goes on to make pejorative remarks about their parents in a circulated newsletter, might also be some sort of indictment.
In fairness to the late Cynthia Hind, she included some quotes in UFO Afrinews (July 1995) from some of the 62 which didn't support the detailed, exotic recollections of others:
Lisa P. "...A man dressed in black came out. He had big eyes. I thought it was an alien and then I thought it was the gardener."
-Hind
doesn't state that Lisa P. changed her mind back! Despite the kerfuffle around her- which might have persuaded her initially that she, along with the others, was looking at an alien-
she thought she saw the gardener.
Fiona: [Hind writes] "...she could see this strange object, very bright, over in the bush and something dark on the object. But she could not identify it as a "little man"; [implying she was asked if she had seen a little man- a leading question; John J.] she [Fiona] says "It could have been a branch or something like that."
Oriana: "I saw this black stick, a very thin, long thing on top of the silver thing."
Branches and blackened sticks might not be uncommon in untended Zimbabwean scrubland. Maybe some fly-tipping happens too (Ariel school is just outside the eastern suburbs of Harare).
In Hind's article "Recent UFO Sightings in Africa" for
The Proceedings of the 8th BUFORA International UFO Congress (1995,
PDF attached) we learn the first adult to be told of the events was Alyson Kirkman who was running the school tuck shop.
"Luke Nel, one of the older boys (aged 12) rushed into the Tuck shop to tell me that he had seen a small man in a silver suit, with a band around his head,
running around the playground."
(My emphasis). And the alien's not in black (or Polka dots).
[
The Proceedings... was acquired from a link in Charlie Wiser's Three-Dollar Kit blog, used with thanks.]
Even allowing for their young age, and whatever similarities Cynthia Hind believes she found across the accounts, it is clear that the children- perhaps different groups of children (circles of friends? Neighbours?)- drew, and described, very different aliens.
Some I've not mentioned are the 5 or 6 drawings of wholly black human-like figures without features (and without long hair).
Three of the children, after questioning by John Mack, revealed they had received a telepathic message about protecting the environment. Speaking as an adult, Emily T. (whose alien was "...about an arm's reach" away) stated,
External Quote:
Telegraphic images started going across my face.
(Three-Dollar Kit, ibid.)
(1) Although Cynthia Hind and John Mack appeared to believe that the children might be reporting an objectively true event, they don't seem to have subsequently devoted much time or effort spreading the extraterrestrials advice, surely- if true- one of the most important messages in the history of humanity. This advice would seem to be the purpose of the alien's visit- they didn't take anything, leave anything, communicate anything else or (in their long-haired guise) visit anywhere else AFAIK.
(2) I'm not aware that any of the three child "receivers" went out of their way to excel in sciences / technologies that might help protect the environment. Nor have they conveyed any original information that helps protect the environment.
Maybe, after traversing the light-years, the aliens wasted their journey and chose to communicate with targets who couldn't process the message.
(3) The messages were generic statements about protecting the environment (perhaps with similar content to the
children's recent lessons on the topic), devoid of any specific warnings or novel advice. Maybe Hind and Mack chose not to draw too much attention to the messages for fear of raising (reasonable) doubts about the whole "message" narrative:
External Quote:
In Mack's interviews one fifth-grader tells how he was warned "about something that's going to happen," and that "
pollution mustn't be".
[1] An eleven-year-old girl told Mack "I think they want people to know that we're actually making harm on this world and we mustn't get too technologed [
sic]."
[1] One child said that he was told that the world would end because they are not taking care of the planet.
[7]
Wikipedia, Ariel School UFO Incident,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_School_UFO_incident, accessed 06/01/24.
We should remember the context: Ariel School was a relatively expensive fee-paying school. It's fair to assume all families would have radios, and most, if not all, TVs and VCRs. English is the lingua franca amongst most influential/ affluent African Zimbabweans, and is otherwise widely understood; it is the first language of most European-ancestry Zimbabweans.
I've read (a post by
@Giddierone? Apologies if I'm wrong) that science fiction films and TV programs (including for children) were broadcast by the local TV channels at that time.
And an interesting coincidence (remembering that the incident happened on Friday 16th September 1994):
(1) Cynthia Hind wrote in
The Proceedings of the 8th BUFORA International UFO Congress (ibid., PDF below),
External Quote:
Some of the Standard Four's (10-year olds) had a discussion earlier that week in one of their general
discussion classes about UFOs.
-She didn't say "...the day before" (Thursday 15th September) so we're talking Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
(2) At about 21:00 on the night of Wednesday 14th September, a stage of a Soviet Zenit-2 rocket, the launcher for Cosmos 2290, re-entered the atmosphere creating a bright fireball, disintegrating into a number of fireballs, seen over much of Zimbabwe. Many people at first thought it was a comet or meteor, and it generated many UFO reports.
This was nationwide news in Zimbabwe, and the state-owned radio broadcaster ZBC asked listeners to 'phone in with their accounts.
So, on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, some of the pupils have an in-class discussion about UFOs.
On Wednesday evening, a bright fireball is seen across Zimbabwe and becomes national news.
On Thursday, the children are in school, perhaps discussing the fireball on the news, and some talking about their classroom discussion about UFOs.
We know the UFO discussion and the fireball are coincidences.
They might not have.
On Friday, the children are not supervised during their mid-morning break (they are normally supervised).
Some claim to see a UFO (or UFOs), a smaller number claim to see an alien (or aliens). Most see nothing.
The period of UFO/ UFOnaut activity falls entirely within the short unsupervised break.
No child reports receiving a message of any sort- not to their teachers, not to their parents. Not until questioned by John Mack over 2 months later.
In the context of this thread, it might be relevant to consider the statements by Fiona and Oriana (above).
They report a "bright" or "silver" thing with a stick or branch attached or nearby.
Another quote of Oriana:
External Quote:
under the silver glittery thing I saw this black - looks like a stick but was very thin... All I saw was a long thing on a silver thing."
She continued,
External Quote:
And I saw like a black thing sitting on top of it. I don't know if it was a branch or the thing - the part of the alien where it was sitting on.
(My emphasis, both quotes from Three-Dollar Kit, ibid.)
But Oriana's picture is a bit more than a possible branch on a silver thing:
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The two boys, [Guy Gibbons, Fungai Mavengare] and subsequently some of the other children, mentioned a very bright, shining light which emanated from the top of that particular bush area. It was almost like the sun reflecting off glass. Fungai said at first he thought it was the sun shining onto the windows of a house. but then he realised there were no houses up on the rise...
Cynthia Hind recounts visiting the site an unspecified time (perhaps a few days) later, accompanied by witnesses Guy, Fungai, the headmaster and a few others in
The Proceedings of the 8th BUFORA International UFO Congress, ibid.
It's interesting that "...two of the more articulate children" first thought they were looking at a bright reflection, but then "realised" they were looking at a very detailed UFO (with green, black and silver stripes according to Guy G. and Farai M. [is this the same child as Fungai Mavengare?] but not apparently noticed by the other 60 children; UFO Afrinews July 1995).
...On Wikipedia, Ariel School UFO Incident (accessed 06/10/24)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_School_UFO_incident
External Quote:
In 2023 in a
Netflix documentary called "Encounters", a former student named Dyllan claimed that he was behind this incident. He claimed that he purposefully told his classmates and other students that a "
shiny rock" in the distance was a UFO. According to his own statement in the documentary, he never thought this would work, and was surprised about the mass hysteria.
We don't know (at least without seeing the documentary- and maybe not then) if Dyllan's admission is credible.
However, we have to consider the possibility of an individual child or small group of children, in the context of that week in 1994 (the class UFO discussion, followed by the re-entry lightshow), drawing attention to something mundane (a shiny reflection or similar), improvising a dramatic explanation and "triggering" behaviours in other children- some not wanting to be left out, others, particularly the youngest, frightened- possibly because they
couldn't see anything.
In
The Proceedings... Hind seems to confirm that the youngest, most upset children were African Zimbabweans (implied in UFO Afrinews). According to Guy G. (again) they were upset because they feared being eaten. Hind explains that some African mothers warn their children that if they are naughty the Tokolosh (more commonly spelt Tokoloshe, Tikoloshe), a folkloric creature, will eat them. Tokoloshes are small; if you raise your bed on a few bricks, they can't clamber up to harm you.
The Tokoloshe is traditionally portrayed as hairy all over (but not
long-haired) and often has a simian appearance, but there is much variation. Inauthentic portrayals in "Western" media look more like malevolent goblins.
On the
Astonishing Legends website
(link here) there's an apparently sincere comment from user West, c. Feb 2023:
External Quote:
...not a legend, unfortunately. I've encountered one, luckily weakened by a witchdoctor who tried to remove it from the farmhouse that I visited... I "saw" a smallish, baboon shaped entity.
South African website
Mzansi Online News has the August 8, 2017 story TOKOLOSHES TAKING OUR FOOD, FAMILY COMPLAINS by Nancy M,
link here (I don't recommend the site!) and has this artist's impression- it's practically a cryptid:
However, none of the 62 children, as far as I know, drew or described something like a Tokoloshe- which might mean the children most upset by the older kids talking about "little men"
didn't actually see anything themselves, but
feared that the older children were seeing Tokoloshes near the school.
In "View Point: Episodes of mass hysteria in African schools: A study of literature", Demobly Kokota,
Malawi Medical Journal; 23(3) September 2011 the author lists the Ariel School incident among cases of sociogenic illness. (
PDF below).
However, he qualifies this, saying
External Quote:
Virtually every single one of the 62 children iterated the exact same story with same details... ...when the children were found to not have much prior knowledge to UFOS or popular UFO perceptions, many other people believed that what the children witnessed could have been real.
But the children clearly didn't tell the same story, details varied enormously, and they were not all "UFO naïve".
Had the majority of older children at Ariel School reported Tokoloshes, other beings from indigenous folklore or malevolent forces from the Christian canon (as seen in some other cases of school sociogenic illness in Africa) I suspect that we would be less interested. But the majority of older children at Ariel in 1994 had a different cultural background, different popular culture references, and maybe different concerns.
Many sociogenic phenomena appear to occur at times of stress and have an identifiable triggering cause (perhaps an unusual odour, later identified and found to be harmless, or a groundless rumour of bad news) and an identifiable initial subject or small clique. (I'm not confident that the Ariel School incident could be called a sociogenic
illness as there were no somatic symptoms, but I think a similar underlying mechanism
might have been at play).
Perhaps the coincidence of the lesson about UFOs being followed within days (or 1 day) by the fireball over Zimbabwe disquieted some students (it
must have got their imaginations working!)
In a brief window of time when no adults were present to reassure, or perhaps dampen down overly theatrical behaviour,
maybe an unusual (or simply previously not noticed*) reflection from some feature in the landscape, or a temporary but essentially mundane source of light, served as the stimulus (like e.g. an odour causing sociogenic illness) for the imaginations of some of the older pupils, quickly snowballing as others were involved, some reluctant to admit that they
couldn't see the cause of excitement among older peers, eventually (but quickly) resulting in distressed smaller children, scared by the excited chatter of the bigger kids but unable to see anything out of the ordinary themselves (and- forgot to say earlier- Tokoloshes can be invisible!)
Break ends, after much excitement, but there's an issue: Being responsible for the little guys crying
isn't a good look (maybe compounded that most of the older witnesses were white, the younger upset children black). No adults had been present; maybe it just seemed easier to one or two of the older kids, on the spur of the moment, to continue with the narrative that they
had seen something unusual (and that's why the littler ones were upset) and their peer group went along with it, much as they had during breaktime.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
*That might be a strange thing to say, but the Orfordness Lighthouse had been happily working for years before Col. Halt et al. attempted to chase its light through Rendlesham Forest.