The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination

by Stuart A. Reid

The Lumumba Plot by Stuart Reid is about what happened when the Congo (now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but also called Zaire in the past) became independent from Belgium in 1960. The democratically elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, was killed in 1961, paving the way for the dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko. Reid follows the story of Lumumba, but also a cast of other characters, including Dag Hammarskjöld, the UN Secretary-General who was killed in a plane accident while on a peace mission in the Congo the same year. It’s a well-told story, and a good way to learn about this period of history, which many people who have read Barbara Kingsolver’s bestselling novel, The Poisonwood Bible, may be curious about (Kingsolver spent two years in the Congo as a child, in the early 1960s).