THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

In spite of my deliberate silence about the gazelle-boy of the Spanish Sahara, an attempt to capture him was made in 1966 by some American officers of the NATO base of Villa Cisneros in the Rio de Oro, who flew all over the Tiris searching for him.  Having spotted him in the course of a migration with his herd, the American officers returned almost immediately with two helicopters to which a net was fixed in the hope that, by dragging it along the ground, they would be able to capture the child alive. 

If the attempt had succeeded, every American in deepest Texas would have seen the child on his little screen, stuffed with tranquillisers and, on his arm, a Hollywood-style native girl darkened with sun-tan, between advertisements for hot dogs and biological washing-powders.

Armen/Gazelle, 1974