Congolese Crisis

The Congo Crisis forms the setting for the final peace mission of Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary-General of the United Nations. In the summer of 1961, civil war in the former Belgian Congo occupied much of his attention. In September he flew to Africa hoping to negotiate a peace agreement, a mission that ended with the crash of his plane and left its cause unresolved.

Peace Mission and Final Night

Hammarskjöld spent his last night with the United Nations mission to the Congo. Among the books he left in the house were a German copy of Martin Buber’s I and Thou and his personal copy of The Imitation of Christ. He had used a typed copy of his oath of office as a bookmark. These details place his public responsibilities beside the texts he kept close, without making the spiritual life that sustained his work separate from the diplomatic mission underway.

The Crash

The next day, Hammarskjöld was flying to Rhodesia to meet Moïse Tshombe, president of Katanga Province, when the plane crashed under mysterious circumstances. A United Nations security guard was the only survivor. He said that he had heard explosions before the crash, a report that contributed to speculation about what had happened but did not establish the cause.

Uncertain Cause and Consequence

The accounts considered in the book leave several explanations open. Some speculation centered on sabotage or an attack by a fighter plane; others attributed the crash to pilot error during a landing approach. The evidence presented does not resolve the disagreement. Its consequence, however, is stated plainly: the world lost a statesman whose work was undergirded by deep mystical spirituality. The mission’s abrupt end thus joins an unresolved question about the crash to the loss of a leader working to secure peace.