''Border, Breed nor Birth'' is a science fiction novella by American writer
Mack Reynolds
Dallas McCord "Mack" Reynolds (November 11, 1917 – January 30, 1983) was an American science fiction writer. His pen names included Dallas Ross, Mark Mallory, Clark Collins, Dallas Rose, Guy McCord, Maxine Reynolds, Bob Belmont, and Todd Har ...
. It is the second in a sequence of near-future stories set in North Africa, which also includes ''
Black Man's Burden'' (1961-1962), "
Black Sheep Astray" (1973), and ''
The Best Ye Breed'' (1978). ''Border, Breed nor Birth'' and the North Africa series have been called a "notable exception" to the indirect treatment of racial issues in 1960s science fiction magazines.
[Langford, David, Peter Nicholls, and Brian Stableford.]
Race in SF
" ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction, first published in 1979. It has won the Hugo, Locus and British SF Awards. Two print editions appeared in 1979 and 1993. A third, continu ...
'', 3d edition (online). Ed. John Clute, David Langford, and Peter Nicholls. 2012. par. 3. Web.
Plot
During his meeting in
Dakar
Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from :wo:daqaar, daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar ...
with the head of the Reunited Nations African Development Project, Dr. Homer Crawford resigns his post as leader of the Sahara Division team to become
El Hassan, the liberator and would-be tyrant of North Africa. Threatened with arrest, Crawford and his followers hide in the Sahara
erg
The erg is a unit of energy equal to 10−7joules (100 nJ). It originated in the Centimetre–gram–second system of units (CGS). It has the symbol ''erg''. The erg is not an SI unit. Its name is derived from (), a Greek word meaning 'work' o ...
. They intercept news that the Arab Union has occupied
Tamanrasset
Tamanrasset (; ar, تامنراست), also known as Tamanghasset or Tamenghest, is an oasis city and capital of Tamanrasset Province in southern Algeria, in the Ahaggar Mountains. It is the chief city of the Algerian Tuareg. It is located an alt ...
, ostensibly to protect the region against El Hassan rioters. Crawford decides to recapture Tamanrasset and use its communications system to proclaim his regime. To do so, he sends his followers to organize troops from nearby regions: the
Teda from the east, the Chaambra from the north, the
Sudanese from the south, and the
Nemadi,
Moors
The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages.
Moors are not a distinct or ...
, and
Rifs from the West. Crawford, Isobel Cunningham, and Cliff Jackson will establish the movement's headquarters in
Tuareg
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Alg ...
country. They are all to rendezvous at Tamanrasset in two weeks.
Crawford wins the loyalty of the Tuareg warriors by offering to make them the core of El Hassan's Desert Legion during wartime and his policemen and rangers during peacetime. Rex Donaldson, ex-field expert for the African Department of the British Commonwealth, arrives to join Crawford's organization, bringing fieldworkers Jack and Jimmy Peters and David Moroka with him. As they are being briefed, David thwarts an assassination attempt against Crawford, killing the assassin. Crawford then sends Rex to recruit troops in
Senegal
Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...
and
Mali
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...
. Now guarded by fifteen Tuareg warriors, Crawford's group travels the country to rally up forces for the upcoming Tamanrasset battle. They capture Dr. Warren Harding Smythe's American Medical Relief team and force them to join the group. As Crawford's team puts together El Hassan's government, Jack proposes that they make
Esperanto the common language of the movement. Kenny Ballalou arrives from the West with news: several Reunited Nations development teams have joined El Hassan, so he now controls a large portion of North Africa. As El Hassan's influence grows, so does his camp, which fills with reporters and foreign diplomats anxious to meet him.
Crawford's group decides to use guerrilla tactics to disable the mechanized army of the Arab Union. They are reprieved from air attack temporarily when the Reunited Nations announces retaliation against any power that uses air combat. Meanwhile, David, who in reality is a Party member of the Soviet Complex, radios his superiors, revealing that he engineered the attempted assassination of Crawford to earn his trust. C.I.A. agent Fred Ostrander arrives at the camp to remind Crawford of his allegiance to the United States and the West, but Crawford responds that he is an African looking for African solutions to African problems. When Ostrander challenges Crawford to explain why he is the man to lead North Africa, Crawford responds that he was thrust into the job. He then expresses deep regret that becoming El Hassan led him to kill his best friend, Abe, who wanted him to swear allegiance to the Soviet Complex. Crawford's confession disarms David, whose spying has been fueled by a desire to revenge Abe.
Isobel surprises David as he is reporting to his superiors, but when confronted by the team, David claims he has resigned from the Party and is now an El Hassan man. He also informs them that the Arab Union is planning to parachute troopers into various points of the Sahara. Ostrander, who has decided to join El Hassan's team as well, earns them some time by telling the commander of the Arab legion that the United States will send its own air force to aid El Hassan if the paratroopers are deployed. As everyone arms for battle, David and Ostrander have one last conversation, in which they insist that their long-term socioeconomical views have not changed, but that both believe African union takes precedence for the moment. They wish each other well during the coming fight.
During the aftermath of the successful recapture of Tamanrasset, Crawford finds that Jack, David, and Ostrander are dead and that Kenny has been seriously hurt. He then receives good news and bad news: foreign countries and organizations have begun to recognize El Hassan as the legal head of North Africa; Elmer Allen has been captured by one of Crawford's enemies, the leader of the Ouled Touameur clan, Abd-el-Kader. To make matters worse, Abd-el-Kader now claims to be the reincarnation of the
Mahdi
The Mahdi ( ar, ٱلْمَهْدِيّ, al-Mahdī, lit=the Guided) is a messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. He is said to be a descendant of Muhammad w ...
, the holiest prophet since Mohammed, so that he can call on a holy war against El Hassan.
Characters
* Homer Crawford/
El Hassan: the idealistic and charismatic would-be tyrant of North Africa. He is an American black and an ex-Marine with a Ph.D. in Sociology from the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
. He speaks
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
,
Esperanto, French,
Tamabeq,
Songhoi, and
Swahili.
* Bey-ag-Akhamouk: one of Crawford's close associates. He becomes El Hassan's Minister of Defense. He is an African of
Tuareg
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Alg ...
background who was taken to the United States at an early age, where he became an American citizen and graduated from the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
with a degree in Political Science.
* Isobel Cunningham (a.k.a. Sitt Izubahil): one of Crawford's close associates. An American black who looks like
Lena Horne, she graduated from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
with a master's degree in Anthropology. She speaks
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
and
Songhoi, as well as some
Esperanto.
* Clifford "Cliff" Jackson: one of Crawford's close associates. He becomes
El Hassan's Minister of Finance. An American black, he is described as having the looks and physique of
Joe Louis.
* Elmer Allen: one of Crawford's close associates. A Jamaican black with a Masters in Sociology from the
University of Kingston
Kingston University London is a Public university, public research university located within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, in South London, South West London, England. Its roots go back to the Kingston Technical Institute, founded in 1 ...
, and a
pacifist.
* Kenneth "Kenny" Ballalou: one of Crawford's close associates. He is an American black from San Francisco; he speaks multiple languages.
* Jake Armstrong: one of Crawford's associates. He becomes
El Hassan's Foreign Minister. He is an American black.
* Rex Donaldson: one of Crawford's associates. A black citizen of the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...
who speaks
Dogon
Dogon may refer to:
*Dogon people, an ethnic group living in the central plateau region of Mali, in West Africa
*Dogon languages, a small, close-knit language family spoken by the Dogon people of Mali
*'' Dogon A.D.'', an album by saxophonist Juliu ...
, he is considered a "witchman" by the tribes he visits in his helio-hopper.
* David Moroka (a.k.a. Anton): a Soviet hatchet man whose mission is to infiltrate
El Hassan's operation. He becomes
El Hassan's Press Secretary. He is a black South African.
* Fred Ostrander: a
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
(C.I.A.) operative. He is an American black.
* Abd-el-Kader: the chief of the Ouled Touameur clan of the Berazga division of the Chaambra nomad confederation. He is Homer Crawford's “barbarian” antagonist.
Major themes
The meeting of East and West
The
novella's title refers to
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
’s poem on the convergence of two seemingly opposed cultural traditions, "
The Ballad of East and West
"The Ballad of East and West" is a poem by Rudyard Kipling. It was first published in 1889, and has been much collected and anthologized since.
The poem
Kamal, a tribal chieftain in the North-West Frontier of the British Raj, steals a British ...
."
[Price, George W. "Mack Reynolds and Politics.]
''eI43''
8.2. (April 2009). Web. Text available a
eFanzines.com
In Kipling’s ballad, two warriors from conflicting civilizations come to value each other’s courage and so become blood brothers in spite of their disparate backgrounds. In ''Border, Breed nor Birth'', the introductory blurb (“Kipling said those things didn't count when two strong men stood face to face. But ... do they count when two strong ideologies stand face to face...?”) indicates that the culture clash is between the freemarket capitalism represented by C.I.A. Fred Ostrander and the Soviet socialism represented by David Moroka. Their antagonism is temporarily resolved when they both recognize each other as equally committed to their African ancestry and to the unification of North Africa. In contrast, the clash between Homer Crawford's dream of a progressive Africa and Abd-el-Kader's adoption of Islamic fundamentalism at the end of the novella offers little hope of a possible meeting of these two enemies.
Turncoat heroism
The
turncoat hero is a recurring figure in Reynolds work, especially in his many stories dealing with underground movements in the
Soviet Bloc and the United States
[Stableford, Brian. "The Utopian Dream Revisited: Socioeconomic Speculation in the SF of Mack Reynolds." ''Foundation'' 16 (May 1979): 37-8. Print. Reprinted in ]
Outside the Human Aquarium: Masters of Science Fiction
'. Rockville, MD: Wildside LLC, 2008. (10). (13). (see, for instance, the short story "Freedom"). Just as Crawford and his group renounced their jobs, parties, and countries in ''
Black Man's Burden'' to follow their dream of modernizing the continent of their racial heritage, in ''Border, Breed nor Birth'' both C.I.A. operative Fred Ostrander and Soviet agent David Moroka turn against their governments and set their ideologies aside to join
El Hassan's cause.
The beneficent tyrant
''Border, Breed nor Birth'' follows the transformation of Dr. Homer Crawford, sociologist, into
El Hassan, "the mythic hero of a united African revolution."
Initially,
El Hassan’s heroic identity seems to rest on his imperial dream as well as his outstanding military strategy, as Crawford’s followers alternatively compare him to
Alexander
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
,
Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
,
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
,
Genghis Khan, and
Tamerlane
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...
.
[ However, as Crawford's chosen name (in Arabic, "]Hassan Hassan, Hasan, Hassane, Haasana, Hassaan, Asan, Hassun, Hasun, Hassen, Hasson or Hasani may refer to:
People
*Hassan (given name), Arabic given name and a list of people with that given name
*Hassan (surname), Arabic, Jewish, Irish, and Scottis ...
" may mean "doer of good") indicates, what distinguishes Crawford as a tyrant is his idealistic dream of bettering North Africa's lot in spite of what North Africans want. In fact, when Crawford despairs at having to become an autocrat, Elmer Allen indicates his belief that Crawford will be a beneficent despot by reciting a stanza from Lord Byron's poe
“The Isles of Greece”
that describes to the tyrant Miltiades
Miltiades (; grc-gre, Μιλτιάδης; c. 550 – 489 BC), also known as Miltiades the Younger, was a Greek Athenian citizen known mostly for his role in the Battle of Marathon, as well as for his downfall afterwards. He was the son of Cimon C ...
as "freedom's best and bravest friend."[Reynolds, Mack. ''Border, Breed nor Birth''. ]Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...
. December 9, 2009. EBook 30639. Part IV, section 1. Web.
Publication history and reception
''Border, Breed nor Birth'' was originally published as a two-part series in '' Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' (July and August 1962). In 1972, Ace Books reprinted it along with the first book in the sequence, '' Black Man's Burden'', as part of its Ace Double
American company Ace Books began publishing genre fiction starting in 1952. Initially these were mostly in tête-bêche format with the ends of the two parts meeting in the middle and with a divider between them which functioned as the rear cover ...
series which features a tête-bêche
In philately, ''tête-bêche'' (French for "head-to-tail", lit. "head-to-head") is a joined pair of stamps in which one is upside-down in relation to the other, produced intentionally or accidentally. Like any pair of stamps, a pair of ''tête- ...
format ( ACE Numbers 06612 and 06612b).
The readers of ''Analog'' voted ''Border, Breed nor Birth'' as the second best story of its issues in the magazine's Analytical Laboratory (AnLab) poll.[Davin, Eric. ''Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction 1926-1965''. Oxford: Lexington, 2006. 195-196. (10). (13). Print.] The popularity of ''Border, Breed nor Birth'' and '' Black Man's Burden'' prompted Reynolds to write " Black Sheep Astray" for the short-story collection '' Astounding: John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology'', a special tribute by thirteen ''Astounding'' authors to the memory of science fiction and fantasy magazine editor John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell Jr. (June 8, 1910 – July 11, 1971) was an American science fiction writer and editor. He was editor of ''Astounding Science Fiction'' (later called '' Analog Science Fiction and Fact'') from late 1937 until his death ...
.[Harrison, Harry. "Afterword." (Reprinted in the flaps of the book jacket). '' Astounding: John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology''. Ed. Harry Harrison. Random House, 1973. 301-2. . Print.][Reynolds, Mack. Introduction to " Black Sheep Astray." '' Astounding: John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology''. Ed. Harry Harrison. Random House, 1973. 201. . Print.]
References
{{Reflist
External links
*
Border, Breed nor Birth
' at Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...
.
Mack Reynolds
at ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction, first published in 1979. It has won the Hugo, Locus and British SF Awards. Two print editions appeared in 1979 and 1993. A third, continu ...
'', 3d edition.
1962 American novels
Novels first published in serial form
1962 science fiction novels
American science fiction novels
Novels set in Africa
Ace Books books