In Horn of Africa Philip Caputo endeavors to present a "personal vision of the nature of violence and to show what happens when a certain kind of man is placed in a condition in which he is free to exceed the bounds of acceptable human conduct." Jeremy Nordstrand is this "certain kind of man." An imperious figure with bear-like strength, Nordstrand and two other US intelligence agents undertake a secret mission to Ethiopia. Its purpose is to smuggle arms to a warlike Islamic tribe, the Beni-Hamid, to help them fight the central Ethiopian government. Nordstrand's motivation, however, has nothing to do with the purposes of his superiors. He joins the mission hoping to find a place where he can follow his murderous impulses without restraint. (p. 46)
Through ruthlessness he achieves his goal of moral outlawry. When Moody, the mission's appointed commander, tries to discipline Nordstrand, the tables are turned and Moody is humiliated by physical and psychological torture. On another occasion Nordstrand proves his immunity to compunction by shooting and beheading five prisoners, an act that propels him, in [his accomplice Charlie] Gage's apt description, beyond "the tug of society's moral gravity."
