Family reunion for Aussie abandoned at birth in Zimbabwe

Abii was adopted from Zimbabwe by Australian parents when she was a baby. She always wanted to know where she came from - but the answer was wilder than she imagined.

Early one morning in August 1983, lives are about to change forever. A baby was dumped in a gutter outside a Zimbabwe hospital, wrapped in a towel.

That tiny, abandoned baby would one day become Australian - a true blue Aussie. But who left her in a lonely stretch of African wasteland - and why - has remained a mystery for 36 years.

36 years have passed since that little girl was found dumped by an African roadside.

The young baby, Abigail Prangs, is now a happily married mother of four living on the Sunshine Coast.

She was brought out to Australia by her adoptive parents Kathy and Mike Prangs when she was seven. Queensland has been her home ever since. They adopted her from a Harare hospital when she was just two months old.

“I just looked at her and thought, ‘I could really love that little girl,’ Kathy tells Sunday Night’s Matt Doran.

“And, of course, that was it, falling in love is one of those things.”

In 1980s Zimbabwe, it was incredibly rare for a white couple to adopt a black child. It wasn’t easy for this newly-minted family to escape the stares and whispers – and it was bound to have an effect on little Abigail.

“She was about three or four,” Kathy recalls. “She came with flour all over her face, and she made a big mess in the bathroom. I said, ‘What are you doing?’ She says, ‘Mummy, I want to be white like you.’ Oh, that broke my heart.”

Abii is now married. She and her husband Ty lead busy lives with demanding careers and four very energetic children.

“She’s running her own business, she’s doing all this sort of stuff, and having the kids,” Ty explains. “Abii is a piece of iron, like, literally. She’s the strongest member of our family and she has to be, she always has been. She holds us all together.”

Abii knows she’s been incredibly lucky in life - but that hasn’t stopped her from wondering about her African roots. In time, her curiosity becomes an obsession. She spent every moment possible trying to find out more about her past.

“Honestly it did consume me,” Abii says. “I would be either texting or researching or try to find some sort of information that I missed because I always just thought there was something missing with my story. Like something didn’t make sense.”

Abii’s first clue comes from a faded Zimbabwean newspaper clipping. “This was in the front page of the Herald newspaper,” she shows Matt the yellowed clipping. “Everyone would have seen it. So I went on Facebook. There’s a few adoption sites and [I] said, ‘Does anyone remember this article?’”

She tracks down the policeman, Paul Manpanzure, who found her wrapped in a Harare Hospital blanket and returned her to the hospital.

“When we returned Abii, we inquired if there were any women who had given birth and absconded from hospital,” Paul reveals. “The hospital did not have any record of mothers who could have absconded.”

That means Abii must now find out which mothers gave birth in the hospital on the day she was born. And an anonymous hospital worker obliges, venturing deep into in the bowels of the old building and secretly searching through decades-old files. She finds the birth register listing. Social media does the rest.

An army of volunteers fans out across Zimbabwe, tracking down all the mothers on that registry. Among the eager foot soldiers are Steve and Geo, who Abii calls The Texas Rangers. Using the newly-found birth records, Steve and Geo travel by bus to distant towns to interview potential matches, working day and night, with no pay - happy just to help.

Finally, the Texas Rangers come across a woman with a strange tale to tell - one of a mysterious midwife and a twin that vanished soon after birth. Abii suspects that she is that missing child. The pieces are falling into place.

The Texas Rangers have tracked down Edna Kamonere and her husband Stanford. The couple has 12 children - one of them born around the same day as Abii. The hospital register says Edna delivered a baby girl. However, Edna believes she gave birth to twins, one of whom was still-born - or at least that is what she told at the time.

“I didn’t know I was pregnant with twins, only when the nurse told me I have another baby,” Edna explains. “She just grabbed it. I never saw her again.”

The timing and details of Edna’s story match what little Abii knows about her own start to life. To confirm the link, Abii engages a local Zimbabwean company to take DNA samples from one of Edna’s daughters, Lorraine.

It was a shock when the test came back. “The results came back positive,” Lorraine remembers. “There is no doubt that is my sister. Just like that.”

And the news gets better: with Lorraine confirmed as Abii’s sister, it’s almost certain Edna is her natural mother. It seems Edna’s second baby wasn’t stillborn after all. The twin was snatched away by nursing staff, possibly as part of a baby smuggling racket.

When Abii found out the news, it was overwhelming. “I broke down, and then I was in shock. So Edna is my mum, but then that means that there’s 12 of them in the family, so there’s twelve siblings... and obviously one of those siblings is my twin.”

Abii doesn’t want to wait any longer to meet her family, especially with Edna gravely ill. Abii is worried that time is running out. “I just decided if I don’t do it now, then it’ll be too late.”

So Abii is returning to the country of her birth, and she’s taking the whole family with her – Ty, the kids, even adoptive mum and dad Mike and Kathy.

Word has spread that through the neighbourhood that the Kamoneres’ lost daughter is coming home. Children chase the ban, chanting Abii’s name. As Abii emerges, she spots her birth parents, and is immediately in tears. Edna runs to Abii and embraces her with an enormous bear hug. It’s not long before Stanford joins them, and soon all three are embracing, with tears of joy streaming down their faces.

At Stanford and Edna’s place, two families are becoming one. “I feel a sense of calm, it’s weird, I feel at home, especially seeing my sisters,” Abii says. “My heart is full, I’m so happy. Even though I’ve had a wonderful life in Australia with my parents, I feel like I’ve missed a lot, a chance to learn the culture, the language. We all get a long really well, [the] kids are running around with their cousins.”

But Abii still has plenty of questions about her birth.

She returns to the hospital she left under such mysterious circumstances 36 years ago. Professor Stephen Manjanja has agreed to help her find some answers.

“I think the key to this story is the fact that your birth register entry is off a single done delivery,” Professor Stephen Manjanja tells Abii. “That means that there was either a big mistake in the entering or the record, or deliberate falsification of the birth record.”

It’s a surreal moment for Abii, returning to this hospital.

In a remarkable coincidence, Abii sights a newborn who has just been brought into the hospital. He’s been deserted by his mother, and is now alone in the world. Abii comforts him, but the emotion of the situation becomes too much for her. “I was lucky enough to be found. This little one has no idea what has happened.”

Abii believes she finally understands how her life played out. But this journey is about to take another strange and heartbreaking twist.

Sunday Night commissioned its own DNA testing to verify the local findings. The results are shocking - Edna is not Abii’s mother. The news leaves Abii in tears.

Global DNA were the specialists who conducted the original tests. The man who promised Abii so much is Tinashe Mugabe.

Upon approaching the head of Global DNA, Mr Mugabe seems to have forgotten his explicit confirmation to a trusting Abigail, and that his tests proved that Edna was indeed her biological mother.

Mr Mugabe refused to answer any of Sunday Night’s questions. The last sight of Mr Mugabe was him driving off into the distance.

But then later that night, he suddenly appeared at the hotel Matt and the Sunday Night crew are staying at - with four policemen in tow.

The cops explain they’re taking Matt in for questioning, but won’t say why. He’s able to film some of what happens using a hidden phone.

At the police station, they’re finally told why they’ve been detained. Mr Mugabe has claimed that Sunday Night attempted to kidnap him.

However, showing the police the footage of the encounter with Mr Mugabe is proof that he has fabricated the entire story. Still, the truth doesn’t concern Mr Mugabe – he’s already outside on social media repeating his lie to a gullible audience.

The DNA tests aren’t entirely worthless. Edna and Stanford might not be Abii’s biological parents - but their daughter Lorraine is Abii’s cousin. The most likely explanation: one of Edna’s four sisters is actually Abii’s mother.

“I’m devastated and confused and worried,” Abii explains.

Abii suspects her real mother is one of Edna’s sisters. The most likely candidate is Elizabeth, who would have been just 14 years old when Abii was born.

However, when Abii confronts her about it, a ute suddenly pulls up and Elizabeth is hurriedly ushered into the vehicle.

Abii is convinced Elizabeth is her mother. “She knows something. Why would you just quit mid-conversation and go off in the van?”

Abii may never know if her hunch is right, but she’s convinced she has stumbled onto a closely-held secret. Pushing any further would only cause more heartache. And however she is related to this big and loving clan, there’s no doubt they are her family.

“It’s literally been like a roller coaster, but I love them, I’ve had such a connection with them. They are family, that will never change. That relationship will never change.”

Her newfound family agree. “Yes! She is still part of the family,” tells Stamford. “She is my sister, and no one is going to take that away from me,” Lorraine says.

It’s been an emotional journey, far more so than Abii could ever have predicted. But she does now have a new African family - and it may grow bigger yet, as the story of one abandoned baby comes full circle.

Abii hasn’t stopped thinking about that abandoned baby boy she met at the hospital when she first arrived in Zimbabwe.

“He’s the cutest little boy,” explains Abii. “He’s two weeks old and his mum left him. As soon as I saw him, I just sobbed.”

Her husband Ty clearly isn’t afraid of a big family either. “Abii being adopted herself it’s always been on the cards for us to look at adopting. It just so happens when visiting the hospital the other day there was a baby that she connected with that had been abandoned, so we’ve had to go back and visit this little fellow, and yeah, he’s gorgeous.”

“I think it’s meant to be,” says Abii. “We’ve been talking to the social services here and just trying to see what we can do. He opens his eyes and then he kind of settles back down on me so yeah, I think it’s love.”

Reporter: Matt Doran | Producer: Stephen Rice

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