She "Fell From the Sky" at 4am

Residents in Nkulumane woke to a strange sight after an elderly woman appeared inside a yard around 4am. (Digital Illustration: GoBeyondLocal)

She "Fell From the Sky" at 4am

At about four in the morning, Precious Ndlovu heard something rattling outside the bedroom window.

The sound was strange enough to wake her, yet ordinary enough for her first thought to settle on the dog. She expected to find something knocked over in the yard.

Then she looked through the window.

An elderly woman was lying inside the yard.

The woman was naked.

Ndlovu had expected to see the dog. Instead, the sight outside left her frightened enough to stay inside the house.

The woman lay on the ground near the perimeter wall at a house in Nkulumane 12, close to the housing office in Bulawayo. Ndlovu called for neighbours because she wanted company before approaching the woman.

The neighbours came.

They saw the same strange scene waiting in the yard.

The woman appeared elderly, and the early morning darkness made the scene even harder to understand. She had appeared inside a private yard, and nobody around the house could immediately explain how she had got there.

Then people noticed the wall.

Cracks marked part of the perimeter, and a dent appeared along the damaged section. The marks gave the gathered residents another detail to discuss as they stood around the yard trying to understand what had happened during the night.

Before long, a story began moving through the neighbourhood.

Some residents believed the woman had fallen from the sky. The strange sound, the woman on the ground and the damage around the wall seemed to fit the explanation in their minds.

Some people went further and described the woman as a witch who had been flying during a witchcraft mission. The woman herself became the centre of the talk while people watched her and tried to get an answer from her.

She struggled to speak.

Her mouth moved when people asked questions, yet clear words were difficult to hear. She eventually wrote down a name and an address on a piece of paper.

The name was Lucy Ngwenya.

The address pointed towards Madlelanyoni in Ntabazinduna.

When residents asked why she was naked, the answers they received were difficult to understand. Her speech came out in fragments, and the people around her continued trying to make sense of the scene.

One account from the gathering added another strange detail. Residents said Ngwenya told them she had fallen from a flying saucer while she was on a witching expedition, and she said other members of the group had left her behind.

The account travelled through the neighbourhood alongside the earlier claim that she had fallen from the sky.

Fear spread with it.

One resident said the incident had left her afraid to sleep because every sound during the night could bring back the thought of another person falling from the sky.

The scene eventually drew the attention of police. Officers came to the property and escorted Ngwenya away from the yard so she could receive help.