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.

[1] During his meeting in 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.

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, and Rifs from the West.

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.

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 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.

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.

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,[5] in Border, Breed nor Birth both C.I.A.

[4] Border, Breed nor Birth follows the transformation of Dr. Homer Crawford, sociologist, into El Hassan, "the mythic hero of a united African revolution.

"[6] 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, Caesar, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, and Tamerlane.