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 PALGRAVE
STUDIES IN
AFRICAN
LEADERSHIP

LEADING
AN AFRICAN
RENAISSANCE
Opportunities and Challenges

Edited by
Kathleen Patterson and Bruce Winston
Palgrave Studies in African Leadership

Series Editors

Baba G. Jallow
LaSalle University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Faith Ngunjiri
Concordia College
Moorhead, Minnesota, USA
Aim of the series
Almost every continent has solid representation in the field of leader-
ship studies except for Africa, despite its rapid growth. A groundbreaking
series, Palgrave Studies in African Leadership fills a gap in the production
of knowledge and scholarly publishing on Africa and provides a much
needed outlet for the works of scholars interested in African leadership
studies around the world. Where many studies of leadership in Africa focus
solely on one country or region, this series looks to address leadership in
each of the different regions and countries of the continent. This comes
at a time when business and academic discourse have begun to focus on
the emerging markets across Africa. The wide-ranging scholarly perspec-
tives offered in this series allow for greater understanding of the founda-
tion of African leadership and its implications for the future. Topics and
contributors will come from various backgrounds to fully explore African
leadership and the implications for business, including scholars from busi-
ness and management, history, political science, gender studies, sociology,
religious studies, and African studies. The series will analyze a variety of
topics including African political leadership, women’s leadership, religious
leadership, servant leadership, specific regions, specific countries, specific
gender categories, specific business entities in Africa, and more.

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/14652
 Kathleen Patterson • Bruce Winston
Editors

Leading an African
Renaissance
Opportunities and Challenges
Editors
Kathleen Patterson Bruce Winston
School of Business and Leadership School of Business and Leadership
Regent University Regent University,
Virginia Beach, VA, USA Virginia Beach, VA, USA

Palgrave Studies in African Leadership

ISBN 978-3-319-40538-4 ISBN 978-3-319-40539-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40539-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016956101

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

Cover image © Gowangold / Alamy Stock Photo

Cover design by Samantha Johnson

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 PREFACE

Setting the Stage for African Renaissance

THE BEAUTY AND THE POSSIBILITIES

I had a visitor in my office recently, an African leader. I asked this leader
two questions: What is the greatest challenge and what is the greatest
hope for Africa? The response to both questions had the same answer—
LOVE. He shared with me that love was the greatest challenge—letting
go of ourselves in leadership along with our own agendas and desires and
truly leading for the benefit of others. He shared that love was also the
greatest hope for Africa—truly embracing the needs of others, seeking
to love neighbors, and to live the collectivist approach that Africa is so
well-known for. This was a good reminder for me that Africa is a unique
continent with many beauties and complexities.
The idea of ‘renaissance’ is an interesting concept to consider. The very
word denotes what is possible, a revival, a renewal. It also has strong con-
notations of a rebirth, a journey to the future, a cultural movement, a
resurgence. One can see percolation of these very things in Africa, and it
begins in her leadership. “Leading an African Renaissance—Opportunities
and Challenges” looks at these concepts from a vigorous perspective
through the lens of history, tradition, economics, society and leadership.
We propose that these perspectives exist with both beauty and possibility.

v
vi PREFACE

THREE UNDERLYING PREMISES

We engage with three underlying premises that are unique definers. These
are that African leadership is uniquely African, that African leadership finds
it strength in the African human existence, and that African leadership,
while fraught with challenges, also has hope and beauty. Firstly, we sur-
mise that African leadership is purely African, and our authors reflect this
as they are either African or have lived and worked extensively in Africa;
this approach provides a unique contextual look into Africa by Africans.
Secondly, we acknowledge that African leadership is a very human-focused
approach and this human condition is fundamental to the person-centered
approach of Africa. Finally, while we acknowledge the challenges and even
the domestic and global reputation of leadership in Africa as problematic,
we seek to move beyond this perspective and also see the good, the expec-
tation and the hope that not only remains but is also the constant of both
the leaders and the followers in Africa.

AFRICAN LEADERSHIP AS AN ENTITY

As we enter into the mysterious beauty of African leadership, we must seek
to understand this leadership that is purely African. While we acknowledge
the temptation to take a Western-centric approach and transplant it, we
also acknowledge that this might be ill-conceived or naïve; and yet we also
have to concede the vast studies of the Western approaches as added value
to the African experience. While conceding this we cannot ignore the exis-
tence of a purely African approach that is both strong and purposeful, as
history has shown us, an approach that is founded upon the idea to both
lead and follow well. This book not only embraces the beauty that exists,
it delves deeply into the African experience, where only the true essence of
leading from a purely African approach can be seen.

AFRICAN LEADERSHIP AS HUMAN EXISTENCE

This book respects and engages the premise of African human existence,
and while a lot of leadership scholarship engages the human experience,
there is something incredibly strong and powerful about the human
existence in Africa. The idea of the African human existence includes an
approach that seeks human well-being that is desired and indeed nec-
essary, relationship-oriented indicating the interdependence upon one
 PREFACE vii

another, and that no one person is an isolated self. This framework is

imperative in understanding the lived African experience, and also the pur-
suit of understanding the leadership dynamics as well as the underpinnings
of how leadership works on the continent.

AFRICAN LEADERSHIP AS RENAISSANCE

Some would take the stance that the leadership of, and within, Africa is
a lost cause with too many challenges, yet it is these very challenges that
exist that provide the foundations that are fertile for the survival and thriv-
ing of this continent, producing the funnel for a revival of leadership,
indeed a renaissance. Most insight into African leadership has focused on
the unethical, the tyrants, the crisis, the corruption and so forth, and yet
we know that Africa is ripe with possibilities and noble endeavors if one
only looks. This book takes that needed look and provides not only hope
for the future of Africa, but also the scope of her leadership and the readi-
ness for an African Renaissance.

THE SOCIETAL, THE CRISIS, THE MODELS AND THE HOPE

We invite you into this journey that is divided into three perspectives.
These are societal movements, a continent in crisis and existent leader-
ship models and the hope of moving forward. We begin by looking with a
perspective of societal movements, specifically at change, sustainability and
even the entrepreneurial fortunes. The next phase of our journey is per-
spectives in crisis, specifically looking at corruption, the Ebola epidemic
and Exploitive Leadership. Our next step is into the perspectives of poten-
tial leadership models, with the perspective of moving forward, with a
look at hope, elders and stories.

CONCLUSION
We (Bruce Winston and I) have been to Africa many times, and while we
are not African, we do acknowledge the greatness of many African lead-
ers, our love for the continent, and our appreciation for its leaders and its
followers. We also relate our deep respect to those leaders and generations
who have gone before and left their leadership legacies for us to study and
learn from.
viii PREFACE

We have truly enjoyed our African students over the years and have learned
as much from them as we hope they have learned from us. This book is a
continued reflection of our learning from Africans—the journeys and les-
sons contained in this book are blunt at times, level in many regards, and
robust in scope. We hope you enjoy this journey into Africa with us.

Kathleen Patterson
 CONTENTS

Part I Perspectives in Societal Movements: Change,

Sustainability and Entrepreneurial Fortunes 1

1 Converting Cattell’s Syntality to Change Leadership

in Africa 3
Boniface Toulassi

2 African Leadership as Jitegemea: A Model

for Sustainability 21
Valerie Arguello

3 Entrepreneurship: Unlocking Africa’s Riches 37

Jeremiah Koshal

Part II Perspectives of Crisis: Corruption, Ebola,

and Exploitive Leadership 61

4 Leading the Way in Battling Corruption 63

James D. Rose

ix
x CONTENTS

5 Renaissance Disclosed: African Leadership in the Ebola

Crisis of 2014 75
Jeff R. Hale

6 Three-dimensional African Leadership: Rediscovering

Powerful Leadership for the Community 99
Timothy A. Brubaker

Part III Perspectives in Moving Forward: Holistic

Leadership, Hope, Elders and Stories 113

7 Accelerating Africa’s Renaissance Using Contextual

Holistic Leadership Development 115
Timothy Mwangi Kiruhi

8 African Leadership Insights: The Role of Hope,

Self-efficacy and Motivation to Lead 133
Karen Cerff

9 Elders Against the State: The Case of Gisu Clan Elders

Reclaiming a Coffee Cooperative 155
Phillip A. Shero

10 Developing African Leaders with Storycentric Methods 173

Rick Sessoms

11 The Stage Is Set for African Renaissance 185

Bruce E. Winston

Index 189
 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Valerie Arguello is passionate about promoting local sustainability in

global non-profit organizations, developing cross-cultural leadership, and
providing leadership strategies for implementing effective change pro-
cesses. Her goal is to contribute to the development of models that per-
petuate dignity and self-reliance while establishing local community
among people groups that have been economically suppressed.
Timothy Brubaker resides in Kigali, Rwanda, where he has been work-
ing with Mission pour la Nouvelle Créature since 2004. His primary role
is training leaders using non-traditional educational methods. Most
recently he is the founding leader and director of the Christian Leadership
Institute of Rwanda.
Karen Cerff has longstanding experience in education, training and orga-
nizational leadership consulting in the public and private sectors, together
with community development and upliftment. She is the COO of the
Transformational Leadership Institute and utilizes an integration of coach-
ing, consulting and training in her interaction with organizational leaders.
Jeff Hale has over 20 years of experience living and working in Africa,
serving as a Christian missionary in Francophone Africa. Currently, Jeff is
the CEO of WellSpirit Consulting Group, Inc., located in the iconic
Willis/Sears Tower in Chicago, IL, providing management consult-
ing, coaching, training and resources to clients.
Timothy Kiruhi is the Director of Training for the International
Leadership Foundation, and has mobilized, developed and deployed

xi
xii LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

African leaders to serve in diverse societal spheres for over 25 years. He

also coordinates the Executive Leadership Network in Kenya, a non-profit
organization spearheading the holistic transformation of Kenya.
Jeremiah Koshal is the Executive Director of Africa Centre for
Entrepreneurship and Leadership (ACEL), an agency that offers consul-
tancy services, as well as training entrepreneurs and corporate leaders for a
more transformative marketplace. Through Dr. Koshal’s leadership, ACEL
has offered many trainings in team building and strategic planning.
Kathleen Patterson is Director of the Strategic Leadership program at
Regent University, USA. She is an expert on servant leadership and coor-
dinates annual Servant Leadership Research Roundtables and Global
Servant Leadership Roundtables in the Netherlands, Australia and Iceland.
James Rose has worked in various leadership positions within a major
international oil and gas company on several continents, including Africa,
retiring after 32 years. He is founder and president of the Christian
Development Foundation, an organization facilitating leadership educa-
tion and development, primarily in Nigeria.
Rick Sessoms has been in vocational ministry since 1978, serving as a
cross-cultural missionary, a local church pastor, an educator and an execu-
tive with several mission organizations. Rick served as Chair of the Lausanne
Movement’s Leadership Development Working Group from 2004 to 2011.
Phillip Shero is the Executive Vice President for Leadership and Business
Excellence at hireMAX, in Fort Worth, Texas. He lived in East Africa for
15 years, and convened and led an International Summit of leaders from
Africa, the UK and the USA to develop a Strategic Plan for launching
an accredited liberal arts university in Uganda.
Boniface Toulassi is originally from Togo, West Africa. Having served
multiple African organizations, most recently he has written and presented
training on the use of technology in evangelism and discipleship in part-
nership with the Aurora Project International.
Bruce Winston is Professor and Director of the Ph.D. in Organizational
Leadership program at Regent University, USA and has served as Dean of
the School of Business and Leadership, growing the school in programs
and publications. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Winston led orga-
nizations in the commercial printing industry.
 LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 2.1 Model for sustainability 26

Fig. 5.1 Two streams model of African crisis leadership 91

xiii
 LIST OF TABLES

Table 5.1 Repetitive, progressive and narrative texture in the African

Renaissance Statement 82
Table 7.1 Proposed curriculum elements for the holistic leadership
development of exemplary leadership in Kenya/Africa 131
Table 8.1 Standardized regression coefficients for MTL-S predictors 134
Table 8.2 Standardized regression coefficients for MTL-G 134

xv
 PART I

Perspectives in Societal Movements:

Change, Sustainability and
Entrepreneurial Fortunes
 CHAPTER 1

Converting Cattell’s Syntality to Change

Leadership in Africa

Boniface Toulassi

INTRODUCTION
This chapter about leadership in Africa taps into a factor that has until
now always been neglected: group energy. Wagner et al. (2010) argued
that “change won’t happen unless you help the community answer the
question, ‘why change?’” (p. xiii), but while Wagner et al.’s observation is
true, Africans have long answered the question “why change?” The Arab
Spring is testament to that effect. Thus, the question is not “why change?”
but “how to change?” Undoubtedly, if for Wagner et al. the preparation
for change is answering a question, for Africans in general, preparing for
change is thirsting after how to change. It means that though Africans
know that Africa must change fundamentally, not just incrementally, most
Africans are disarmed by the rampant illiberal democracies prevailing on
the continent. It is in that perspective that this chapter argues that convert-
ing African syntality into social dynamite (called collective efficacy) might
spearhead leadership of/for change. In this work, syntality the collective
efficacy is called the “social dynamite” which will generate leadership

B. Toulassi ( )
Bridge to Nations, Loganville, GA, USA
e-mail: sbtoulassi@gmail.com

© The Author(s) 2017 3

K. Patterson, B. Winston (eds.), Leading an African
Renaissance, Palgrave Studies in African Leadership,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40539-1_1
4 B. TOULASSI

efficacy for communities so that group action energy (Stewart, Manz, &
Sims, 1999) can be used to decide on the roles of and responsibilities for
leaders and the led.
To describe groups’ personality Cattell (1948) used the term “syntality”
arguing that groups can also be defined according to factors, much like
the personality can. It is clear then that groups have personality. Syntality
is the group’s personality or the effect that the group has as a totality
(p. 27). This syntality helps predict patterns of group behaviour and deter-
mines the group’s chances for success. According to Cattell, personality is
that which will predict behaviour in any given situation. Cattell explained
that syntality is composed of energy, or total amount of energy available to
a group to perform group activities. These interrelated or combined ener-
gies of group members are determined by the total number of members,
the attitudes of the members present, the individual abilities and resources
of group members, and the reasons why the group was formed. Thus,
group syntality can be transformed into social dynamite or collective effi-
cacy when interrelationships within African communities are channelled
and properly geared toward leadership of change because Cattell’s theory
of group syntality (1948) is related to Lewin’s field theory which empha-
sizes the importance of interrelationships within groups. African commu-
nities regarding their creation, purpose and development have dynamics
that can be converted into collective efficacy and change knowledge to
usher change leadership.

AFRICAN SYNTALITY: A DORMANT CHANGE ENERGY

Adadevoh (2007) underlined that communality is a value that contributes
positively toward the development of Africa for the “value of the indi-
vidual is directly tied to that of the community of which he/she is part.
No person is considered an island. Everyone is expected to feel a sense
of belonging and obligation to the community” (p. 51). Thus African
communities possess Cattell’s syntality that he called the group energy,
which has a maintenance energy that is the energy the group uses to
establish rapport, overcome conflict, control disruptive participants or
maintain relationships. So the question is no longer what Africans have
to do to usher change, rather how to consolidate and channel the group
energy to promote responsible and responsive leadership. The answer is
the conversion of their syntality into action energy or effective synergy
with specific and well defined goals which bring in the need for change
 CONVERTING CATTELL’S SYNTALITY TO CHANGE LEADERSHIP IN AFRICA 5

knowledge—the why of the change (Fullan, Cuttress, & Kilcher, 2005).

The first overriding principle for change is “knowledge about the why of
the change” (p. 54). So African communities become profiles of indices
and if syntality vectors the leadership situation in Africa, the result could
probably be a change leadership. The communal role becomes capital if
predicted through the equation syntality vector leadership. One crucial
problem to overcome is engaging people’s moral purposes by helping
them or cultivating them to think by and for themselves. Here, change
does not just become a goal but a process of engaging “educators, com-
munity leaders, and the society as a whole in the moral purpose of the
reform” (Fullan et al., 2005, p. 55).
To get there, Africans have to think for and by themselves. Paradoxically,
Henry Ford once said that if you think you can or think you can’t, you
are right. The intriguing effect of this dilemma is that people’s beliefs in
their efficacy influence their courses of action and how much effort they
put into given endeavours, how long they will persevere in the face of
obstacles and failures, their resilience to adversity, whether their thought
patterns are self-hindering or self-aiding, how much stress and depres-
sion they experience in coping with taxing environmental demands, and
the level of accomplishments they realize (Bandura, 1997). Telling people
that not thinking right is right, is the best way to develop intellectual lazi-
ness or complaisance, a long-lasting philosophy that has fed and fuelled
Afropessimism and allowed singular leaders to deprive their people of the
freedom to think for themselves. Thinking that you cannot think right
actually leads to mental paralysis, which forced some Africans to accept
the status quo while debilitating in fatalism (Africa is the way it is because
some gods decided it that way) and historicism (Africa is the way it is
because of colonization).
Unless people believe they can produce desired effects by their
actions, they have little incentive to act (Bandura, 1997). Surprisingly,
these misconceptions of life and human being betray Kotter’s (1999b)
eight steps for leading change: establishing a sense of urgency, creating
a guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the
change vision, empowering a broad base of people to take action, gen-
erating short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing even more
change, and institutionalizing new approaches in the culture. Thinking
that not thinking right is right has led to impossibilism or what is known
as Afro-pessimism. This thinking slowed or negated any initiative toward
the transformation of Cattell’s syntality into human dynamite to change
6 B. TOULASSI

African leadership from powerless or overpowering leadership into leader-

ship of change. The ultimate call is for Africa to move to cross-vergence
perspectives (Theimann, April, & Blass, 2006) from convergence (Adler,
1991; Hofstede, 1980, 1991) and divergence—that is a leadership (which
maintains that economic ideology drives cultural values) that is not diverg-
ing (Ralston, Gustafson, Cheung, & Terpstra, 1993) but adapting and
changing.
Surprisingly Africa has heavy syntality power through its communalism
which is still vivid. As Mbiti (1970) noted, the African view of the person
can be summed up in this statement: “I am because we are, and since we
are, therefore I am” (p. 141); whereas Menkiti (1984) added that in the
African view it “is the community which defines the person as person,
not some isolated static quality of rationality, will, or memory” (p. 172).
For Menkiti, the processual nature of being in African thought, is that
persons become persons only after a process of incorporation. Without
incorporation into this or that community, individuals are considered to
be mere danglers to whom the description “person” does not fully apply.
According to Menkiti, personhood is something to be achieved, not given
simply because one is born of human seed. Thus, to possess personhood
does not make sense except in reference to these collective facts. It must
also be conceived as going through a long process of social and ritual
transformation until it attains the full complement of excellences seen as
truly definitive of man. It is to be underlined that during this long process
of attainment, the community plays a vital role as catalyst and as prescriber
of norms. The burning question is how can Cattell’s syntality of African
communities be transformed into a social dynamo, a collective efficacy to
generate a collective agency which will lead to the leadership of change?
Efficacy is the power of people to produce results and people guide
their lives “by their beliefs of personal efficacy. Perceived self-efficacy refers
to beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action
required to produce given attainments” (Bandura, 1997, p. 3). To grow
syntality into collective efficacy, or to turn syntality into a transforming
leadership factory and laboratory for social and communal interdepen-
dence, will require giving a goal-oriented informational power to com-
munity members. To become something starts from the knowing that one
can and one has the capacity to become it. So information and education
are the initial steps to take. Also, collective efficacy indicates the cumula-
tive summation of self-efficacy, which is people’s beliefs about their own
efficacy pertaining to specific tasks and circumstances. Self-efficacy reflects
 CONVERTING CATTELL’S SYNTALITY TO CHANGE LEADERSHIP IN AFRICA 7

competency, beliefs about one’s ability to accomplish a particular set of

tasks in a defined situation. Thus, to build their collective efficacy toward
change leadership, communities must be taught that well-tailored syntal-
ity is the power people have to produce an effect. This is where African
change leadership initiatives meet the need for change knowledge which
is the “understanding and insight about the process of change and the key
drivers that make successful change in practice. The presence of change
knowledge does not guarantee success, but its absence ensures failure”
(Fullan et al., 2005, p. 54).
Thus, when African communities positivize and channel their syntality
well it becomes a motivated behaviour which is purposive, based on col-
lective and personal reflections, foresight and planning. Using collective
efficacy, African social syntality can overpower overpowering leadership
in Africa. This work suggests that for the result to be measurable and
effective, the process must focus on a de-collectivization of the collective
mind, the de-traditionalizing of leadership practices, through the change
in the group’s power or the power of the group to be a change instru-
ment, espousing African wholeness. Collective efficacy, which this work
calls social or group dynamite, has been defined as a group’s shared beliefs
in its conjoint capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action
required to produce specific levels of accomplishments (Bandura, 1997;
Prussia & Kinicki, 1996). Collective efficacy, however, does not mean
leadership efficacy. The latter is a special case of collective efficacy related
to the domain of leadership. Thus, positive collective influence processes
promote a group’s beliefs that it can engage and perform. Although col-
lective efficacy is commonly thought of as being built through group inter-
action, Bandura (2000) notes that collective efficacy beliefs themselves
operate within the individual through similar processes as self-efficacy.
Specifically, collective efficacy is gained through successful group interac-
tion, yet stored in the minds of the individuals in that group. Leadership
efficacy influences an individual’s leadership performance.
On that note, if leadership efficacy represents a leader’s confidence in
his or her ability to lead others to perform well and to help his or her
group succeed, and effective leadership requires a strong positive image
and a sense that one can meet individual and group challenges, this work
hypothesizes that transferring the leadership efficacy into syntality will
usher leadership change in Africa. Senge (1999) purported that leadership
of change is the capacity of a human community to shape its future, and
specifically to sustain the significant process of change required to do so. To
8 B. TOULASSI

that end, if and since Africa is known to be a communal and collectivistic

continent, the latter has Senge’s capacity which is Cattell’s syntality. Now,
the corrective step is how to transform African group energy into com-
munal power, a communal dynamite to blow irresponsible and unethical
leadership away. Of course, because he who knows Africa reckons, at least,
the power and the effectiveness of communities and the interpersonal rela-
tionships that Cattell calls maintenance energy. To be factual, one of the
reasons why Africa has been stable in spite of all the problems of slavery,
colonialism, poor post-independence leadership and corruption has been
the non-formal leadership and social support within the context of ethnic
communities (Adadevoh, 2007). This means that community support and
non-formal leadership are the unique characteristic and strength of Africa.
How can African communities harness Adadevoh’s community support
and non-formal leadership to Cattell’s maintenance energy to create a cul-
ture that enables and sustains leadership of change or change leadership?
Truly, every group is different, and groups create behaviours, languages,
codes and rituals that categorize them. Though each group is different,
the behaviours, languages, codes and rituals hold them cohesive. Such
synergy cohesiveness may differ from group to group.

CONVERTING CATTELL’S SYNTALITY

Overpowering leadership in Africa has created leadership for life and com-
munity underconfidence. So, the power to change must come from build-
ing communal synergy. This works to produce a result greater than the
sum of individual effects. Related to syntality, this means that each indi-
vidual separately is not important and what really matters is the group as
a whole. Now, the group has to corporately admit that lack of leadership
of change is the causal effect of lack of change leadership. The difference
between the two must be illuminated. Then, marching in unison with
dynamical capacity individuals might build their self-efficacies into group
and communal pressure that is put on leaders and requires them to decide
and lead differently. The group needs to be enlightened on ethical, moral
and authentic leadership to prevent falling back to unilateral leadership as
experienced after the Arab Spring. The syntality of the group must show
how the relationship with the group must be. Each individual in the group
is not relevant, but the group as a whole is. Every group is different from
other groups in the behaviours, languages, codes and rituals that charac-
terize them.
 CONVERTING CATTELL’S SYNTALITY TO CHANGE LEADERSHIP IN AFRICA 9

Second, to catalyze change, it is high time Africa surmounted the

thought that thinking you cannot think right is right. This mental paraly-
sis prescription or condoning cannot be addressed if one ignores that one
of the areas where the value of integrity is a serious challenge is that of
inter-ethnic (inter-tribal) relationships (Adadevoh, 2007). Adadevoh goes
beyond monographic tribes to tackle autochthony, the philosophy that we
are what and who we are because we were here before others came. Thus,
to interconnect and solidify tribal linkages, monographic tribes must be
healthy and their syntality empowered and converted into social dyna-
mites. Then, the third step would be to agree that if social benefits and
responsibilities of the communities are the cultural capital of these com-
munities, which is the cumulative knowledge of a people over long periods
of time that serves as an asset for different kinds of social agreements in life
(Adadevoh, 2007), a member of the community needs to cause conflicts,
especially as De Dreu (1997) argued that “Change starts with one indi-
vidual who causes conflict.” The fourth thing towards converting African
syntality to power for leadership change is the application or the imple-
mentation of social exchange theory which denotes an interplay between
structure, strategy and environment. This means that African syntality
must be informed that group energy becomes the change advocate, spon-
sor and target at the same time (Vasilescu, 2012, p. 329). For someone
to cause conflict, Hofstede’s collective mind must be decollectivized. But
how? The answer seems simple: deprogramming the social mind.

DEPROGRAMMING THE SOCIAL MIND

Hofstede’s (2011) defined culture as “the collective programming of the
mind that distinguishes of one group or category of people from others”
(p. 5). The communities need to know that groupthink is not necessarily
the best way to usher change: it is “a process by which a small group of deci-
sion makers subjected to intense stress may become more concerned with
achieving concurrence among their members than in arriving at carefully
considered decisions” (Hensley & Griffin, 1986). The group loyalty and
conformity are great but not the underlining factors for the change. Here,
change knowledge becomes the common denominator for the decollectiv-
ization of the collective mind, for change knowledge explains and teaches
the understanding of the change process, builds capacity and, in particular,
stresses that making change work requires the energy, ideas, commitment
and ownership of those implementing improvements (Fullan et al., 2005).
10 B. TOULASSI

Thus, the syntality conversion needs a long-term goal, which is ownership

development. Thus, the first step toward the decollectivization of the collec-
tive mind is to de-traditionalize the mind. It is informing African Syntality
that “no one is wiser than all of us” (Bennis, 1985), that authoritarian dura-
bility is a syndrome (Habisso, 2011), and that inherited leadership was never
meant to be hereditary (Khunou, 2007), that it took the sons of headmen,
in their own interests, to perpetuate the myth of “headmanship as heredi-
tary” (Koyana, 2004, p. 145). Headmanship means that a homestead was
led by a man who was actually a father or a husband (Samuelson, 2013).
In addition, since no one is too strong or smart to drive change alone, syn-
tality has to be recruited (Vasilescu, 2012): that is, the group should take
the responsibility. This work argues that if change leadership has not been
established it is because syntality has been denied its power and efficiency.
To this end, the freedom to think and be positively different should
be introduced and encouraged in communities without jeopardizing the
social peace, harmony and responsible interdependency. Though it is true
that the African practice of leadership distinguishes Africans from others,
the time has come for individual thinking of the collective phenomenon be
rethought to prepare an enabling environment to cultivate, teach and prac-
tise leadership of change. Though collective thought is not a negation of
self-think, it is high time each member of African communities broadened
their tendencies to prefer certain states of affairs over others. This is the
only way towards the change of leadership. Thus, for positive understand-
ing and benefits of community syntality, African communities must accept
the fact that not everything collective is necessarily good, that change is
the only thing that does not change, that change will happen whether the
community wants it or not. This undeniable truth with its power to dash
fatalistic views will enable community members to think by themselves; to
be collectivistic without denying change leadership or depriving individuals
of their individuation. The goal here is to stimulate individual members to
transcend passed-down principles to create and maintain change.
The de-collectivization process of the mind must create the means that
foster the re-energizing of group syntality by constructing cultural defences
of the mind, outlined through cultural conversations in the creation of
concepts and meanings besides what colonialism has bestowed (Elly,
2013, p. 22). Thus, the ordeals of imagination undergone by culturally
violated communities that have survived colonialism, cultural genocides
and enslavement, and imperialisms should find space and inform our
understanding of human solidarity under impossible conditions. The goal
 CONVERTING CATTELL’S SYNTALITY TO CHANGE LEADERSHIP IN AFRICA 11

of this de-collectivization of the mind is to ensure that syntality takes over

the responsibility of teaching the community how to de-traditionalize its
inherited leadership.

DE-TRADITIONALIZE INHERITED LEADERSHIP

Nabudere (2011) urged that the process of re-awakening and recovery
in Africa has to be one of an historical deconstruction in what he calls
“consciousness raising” (p. 92), not by others, but by Africans themselves,
tracing the origins and achievements of their civilizations. This requires
the adoption of Afrikology—as an epistemology that recognizes orality as
a valid source of knowledge. Elly (2013) argued that the first articulation
of Afrikology declares that:

It is a true philosophy of knowledge and wisdom based on African cosmogonies.

It is afri- because it is inspired by the ideas originally produced from the cradle
of humankind located in East Africa which emanates from the source of a uni-
versal system of knowledge originating in Africa. Thus, the philosophic product
is therefore not relativistic to Africa, but universal in its essence, with its base in
Africa. It is also—(ko)logy because it is based on the logos-the word, which was
uttered to set in motion the universe in its originality. (p. 2)

It was from this word, Afrikology, that human consciousness first emerged
and it was from that consciousness that humanity emerged as a thinking
and acting agent with language and with “word” as the active cultural
achievement. It is learning to work with culture, and learning and innovat-
ing while working in the community. Here, the process of deconstruction
should follow the de-traditionalization of leadership. This is to reject “the
neo-traditionalism instituted by the colonial state” (Elly, 2013, p. 2) and
to trust that it is “the local struggles in the villages that can guarantee
African-rebirth, resurgence and renaissance”. So, the medium between
Cattell’s syntality and change leadership in Africa is the conversion of the
African maintenance energy into action energy. This is the substance of the
discussion: if a community requires or generates loyalty to all, how can a
member be disloyal to his or her community to become a source of trans-
formational conflict and count at the same time on communal support?
The answer to this question is crucial because causing transformational
conflict is purposive. This means that there should be a group to sup-
port the cause, implement the steps and actions, and welcome the results.
12 B. TOULASSI

Here, the powerless syntality becomes aware of its power and action
energy, becomes empowered to result in Adadevoh’s (2007) communal-
ism, which is a value that contributes positively towards the development
of Africa. In traditional Africa, he wrote, the value of the individual is
directly tied to that of the community. Can individual value be tied to a
value system instead of loyalty to community? Can African communities
create a totally new value system based on integrity and meritocracy, using
syntality as the source and as the cause? It will take the following:
Developing cultures for learning. This involves a set of strategies
designed for people to learn from each other (the knowledge dimension)
and become collectively committed to improvement (the affective dimen-
sion) (Fullan et al., 2005). Practically, syntality conversion should also
encapsulate how to focus on leadership for change which is knowing what
kind of leadership is best for productive leadership change. Leadership to
be effective must be distributed to become collective leadership develop-
ment and practice. This will stem from the ground rule that “Change is
the only thing that doesn’t change.” If we take a critical look at the causes
and effects of the Arab Spring and the adapted dialogue citation from the
well-known movie Star Trek: “Resistance to change is futile.” We all know
that resistance to change is natural, that it is a normal human trait and
a natural part of the change process; the suggested de-traditionalization
process, is a smooth one, that is using the power of syntality not just to
support what existed and had been practised for all these years but also a
power to change. This re-orientation of syntality will address the issue of
who African community members would want to become on the basis of a
politer human identity, who deserves a voice in how he is led.
Communities must become change advocators, sponsors and targets.
African communities must become change advocators and as Vasilescu
(2012) explained, a change advocator is usually an individual or group
who wants to achieve a change, but does not possess the legitimate power
to make it occur. This reconnaissance credits then the cardinal point this
work is making that Africans know that they need change: but how to
change how the Rubicon they have not crossed in a very successfully way
yet. This explains that according to Cattell’s syntality, a group energy must
be charged with the power it encompasses and deserves. At the same time,
syntality must remain the change sponsor for change leadership. It means
that the group becomes the person or the organ which legitimizes the
change while individuals are the cause and the target. In other words,
for syntality to change, individuals must change. This makes sense when
Marriot (2006) observed the following:
 CONVERTING CATTELL’S SYNTALITY TO CHANGE LEADERSHIP IN AFRICA 13

It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more
dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the initiator has
the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and
merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones. (Marriot, 2006)

Here the lukewarm defenders are traditions and tribally and politically
inherited leadership. Cattell’s syntality has more power than traditional
leaders do. What needs to change is to equip communities with the change
knowledge that they have the power, not the leaders. So, it is up to syntality
to initiate the change and be ready to confront and de-traditionalize any
negative leadership practices. Africa is to develop a strategy which influ-
ences the structure of its syntality where variables such as age are no more
the metric of leadership, but rather merit is. Lineage is no more the diktat
of community-based leadership, qualifications are. As such, this influenced
structure constrains strategic choice, which has to balance group rewards
and costs. Pugh and Hickson (1996) defined strategy as the determina-
tion of basic long-term goals and objectives together with the adoption
of courses of action and the allocation of resources for carrying out those
goals. Here, the strategy is how determined Africans are to become bet-
ter and how committed they are to such goals. This determination is to
be channelled in an empowered syntality structure which is a community
devised to administer the activities that arise from the strategies adopted
(Stacey, 1989).
Balancing rewards and costs. Fullan et al. (2005) argued that “suc-
cessful change involves learning during implementation” (p. 56) and
“When innovation runs amok, even if driven by moral purpose, the result
is overload and fragmentation” (p. 57). Thus, the interplay between costs
and results is to create the irreversible dynamics which factor singular lead-
ership into the positive power of change by converting the total amount
of group energy into shared leadership, and to remain strict with social
rewards and cost. Stewart et al. (1999) argued that social rewards include
friendship, self-esteem and feelings of control whereas costs include
reduced efficiency by meeting together and negotiating decisions. African
syntality meets all these rewards but how to soar beyond and above
ordinary communal meetings to change it into a powerful energy to pro-
mote social readiness and intentionality to deny bad leaders their com-
munal friendship and feelings of control which, in time, will surely affect
leader’ self-esteem, dear to collectivistic people. It is depriving communal
leaders of their social advantages which are the involvement of the com-
munity in the care, well-being and development of their leader.
14 B. TOULASSI

MOVING COMMUNITIES FROM OVERPOWERING

TO POWER-BUILDING LEADERSHIP

When Cattell’s converted syntality becomes the fuel and the framework for
the change process, African communities would regain the power that is
theirs to weigh pressure on traditionally and politically inherited leadership
in such a way that leaders cannot help transitioning from overpowering
leadership (for the leader) and powerless leadership (for the led) toward
power-building leadership. Overpowering leadership, according to Stewart
et al. (1999) is an active and autocratic leader imposing his will on the com-
munity. Though Stewart et al. attributed powerless leadership to a leader,
this discussion attributes it to communities or syntality whose power was
lost to singular and inherited leadership. African traditional and modern
citizens have become powerless in making the group energy aggressive
or passive. This defeated power ignores day-to-day issues of leadership,
concerns that the grassroots and national populations in general have due
to traditions of inherited leadership and the Great Man Theory which
asserts that leaders in general and great leaders in particular are born not
made—of a hero giving protection from unseen forces of nature and from
the gods. Powerless and defeated power develops Hickman’s (2010) yes-
people, or conformist followers who are also in the negative section of the
critical-thinking chart. They will do whatever the leader says, but they need
the leader to say it. In a sense, there seems to be a tradition and an inten-
tionality to keep followers alienated or passive followers who are “often
cynical and skeptical” (p. 183). In consequence, they are never pragmatic
or star followers who bring enthusiasm, intelligence and self-reliance to the
implementation of the communal goal. Less-effective followers are more
passive, withholding their best thinking or efforts (Hickman, 2010). The
traditional leadership philosophy and follower development framework
prevent followers from both achieving extraordinary outcomes and, in the
process, developing their own leadership capacity.
What is tradition? Tradition means we are doing what we are doing
because that is what our ancestors have done. Thus, the conversion of
Cattell’s syntality also converts tradition to empower groups and commu-
nities to create an enabling environment for power-building leadership.
Here, the group becomes an active and democratic leader encompass-
ing elements of visionary hero and superhero archetypes and, to a lesser
degree, the transactor archetype (Stewart et al., 1999). Its result is the
determination that community members agree to be led in exchange for
 CONVERTING CATTELL’S SYNTALITY TO CHANGE LEADERSHIP IN AFRICA 15

beneficial leadership and because social behaviours are contingent on the

actions of others while at the same time being coherent and distinctive
(Stacey, 2001). With this value-added syntality, the community reckons
that leadership should be responsible for interactions between human
persons as autonomous individual humans who can freely choose their
goals and actions and decide who should lead them and how to be led.
The empowered syntality gives community members the right and the
power to be led with a change leadership mindset. A syntality informed
of its power and action energy and synergy will want to choose a leader
who is path-goal oriented. This theory focuses on how leaders motivate
subordinates to accomplish a goal (Evans, 1970; House, 1974; House &
Dessler, 1974). As such the new leader chosen by the converted syntality
will define goals, clarify the path, remove obstacles and provide support.
To do so, the leader has to exemplify the following four leadership behav-
iours. First, directive leadership similar to Blanchard’s initiating structure
or telling style in situational leadership, where the leader gives instructions
about a task, how it is done, the expectations and the timeline. Second,
this path-goal oriented leader will also show a supportive leadership which
resembles consideration behaviour. The leader would finally be approach-
able and friendly, attending to the wellbeing and human needs of sub-
ordinates, not mindful of his positional leadership only. Here, Maslow’s
pyramid tops the egocentric power possession.
This converted syntalic leader ceases to be a traditional superhero but a
transformed leader who treats his community or members as equal. With
the first two leadership behaviours, a leader of a group with transformed
syntality will exemplify participative leadership, a leader who invites sub-
ordinates to participate in decision making. This leader is achievement-
oriented and challenges his community to perform work at the highest
level possible. In African communities, the invitation to participate in
decision making is not the problem, rather it is how to transcend tradi-
tionality to change and progress. In African communities, working is not
the problem, but rather how to have tools relevant to the needs and tech-
nological accuracy of the globalized village is the problem. Also, having
the tools is not the issue but having a philosophy of labour, work ethics
which transcends a life of subsistence to the development of economy or
economy of development is the issue. Economic evolution is bound to
be reflected in people’s collective mental programming, but there is no
reason why economic and technological evolution should suppress other
cultural variety (Hofstede, 2011).
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The men return
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
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you are located before using this eBook.

Title: The men return

Author: Jack Vance

Illustrator: Robert Engle

Release date: September 4, 2023 [eBook #71565]

Language: English

Original publication: New York, NY: Royal Publications, Inc, 1957

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEN

RETURN ***
 THE MEN RETURN

By JACK VANCE

Illustrated by ENGLE

Alpha caught a handful of air, a globe of

blue liquid, a rock, kneaded them together....

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Infinity July 1957.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

Only rarely will the Infinity-plus

symbol—INFINITY's award of unusual
merit—appear on an individual story.
(For a typical example of the way it
will be used, see "Tales of Tomorrow"
elsewhere in this issue.) The Men
Return is an exception by virtue of
being one of the most unusual stories
ever written. We do not guarantee that
you will like it, but we are sure that
you will either like it tremendously or
hate it violently. And we're very
anxious to learn your reactions!
The Relict came furtively down the crag, a shambling gaunt creature
with tortured eyes. He moved in a series of quick dashes, using
panels of dark air for concealment, running behind each passing
shadow, at times crawling on all fours, head low to the ground.
Arriving at the final low outcrop of rock, he halted and peered across
the plain.
Far away rose low hills, blurring into the sky, which was mottled and
sallow like poor milk-glass. The intervening plain spread like rotten
velvet, black-green and wrinkled, streaked with ocher and rust. A
fountain of liquid rock jetted high in the air, branched out into black
coral. In the middle distance a family of gray objects evolved with a
sense of purposeful destiny: spheres melted into pyramids, became
domes, tufts of white spires, sky-piercing poles; then, as a final tour
de force, tesseracts.
The Relict cared nothing for this; he needed food and out on the
plain were plants. They would suffice in lieu of anything better. They
grew in the ground, or sometimes on a floating lump of water, or
surrounding a core of hard black gas. There were dank black flaps of
leaf, clumps of haggard thorn, pale green bulbs, stalks with leaves
and contorted flowers. There were no recognizable species, and the
Relict had no means of knowing if the leaves and tendrils he had
eaten yesterday would poison him today.
He tested the surface of the plain with his foot. The glassy surface
(though it likewise seemed a construction of red and gray-green
pyramids) accepted his weight, then suddenly sucked at his leg. In a
frenzy he tore himself free, jumped back, squatted on the temporarily
solid rock.
Hunger rasped at his stomach. He must eat. He contemplated the
plain. Not too far away a pair of Organisms played—sliding, diving,
dancing, striking flamboyant poses. Should they approach he would
try to kill one of them. They resembled men, and so should make a
good meal.
He waited. A long time? A short time? It might have been either;
duration had neither quantitative nor qualitative reality. The sun had
vanished, and there was no standard cycle or recurrence. Time was
a word blank of meaning.

Matters had not always been so. The Relict retained a few tattered
recollections of the old days, before system and logic had been
rendered obsolete. Man had dominated Earth by virtue of a single
assumption: that an effect could be traced to a cause, itself the effect
of a previous cause.
Manipulation of this basic law yielded rich results; there seemed no
need for any other tool or instrumentality. Man congratulated himself
on his generalized structure. He could live on desert, on plain or ice,
in forest or in city; Nature had not shaped him to a special
environment.
He was unaware of his vulnerability. Logic was the special
environment; the brain was the special tool.
Then came the terrible hour when Earth swam into a pocket of non-
causality, and all the ordered tensions of cause-effect dissolved. The
special tool was useless; it had no purchase on reality. From the two
billions of men, only a few survived—the mad. They were now the
Organisms, lords of the era, their discords so exactly equivalent to
the vagaries of the land as to constitute a peculiar wild wisdom. Or
perhaps the disorganized matter of the world, loose from the old
organization, was peculiarly sensitive to psycho-kinesis.
A handful of others, the Relicts, managed to exist, but only through a
delicate set of circumstances. They were the ones most strongly
charged with the old causal dynamic. It persisted sufficiently to
control the metabolism of their bodies, but could extend no further.
They were fast dying out, for sanity provided no leverage against the
environment. Sometimes their own minds sputtered and jangled, and
they would go raving and leaping out across the plain.
The Organisms observed with neither surprise nor curiosity; how
could surprise exist? The mad Relict might pause by an Organism,
and try to duplicate the creature's existence. The Organism ate a
mouthful of plant; so did the Relict. The Organism rubbed his feet
with crushed water; so did the Relict. Presently the Relict would die
of poison or rent bowels or skin lesions, while the Organism relaxed
in the dank black grass. Or the Organism might seek to eat the
Relict; and the Relict would run off in terror, unable to abide any part
of the world—running, bounding, breasting the thick air; eyes wide,
mouth open, calling and gasping until finally he floundered in a pool
of black iron or blundered into a vacuum pocket, to bat around like a
fly in a bottle.
The Relicts now numbered very few. Finn, he who crouched on the
rock overlooking the plain, lived with four others. Two of these were
old men and soon would die. Finn likewise would die unless he
found food.

Out on the plain one of the Organisms, Alpha, sat down, caught a
handful of air, a globe of blue liquid, a rock, kneaded them together,
pulled the mixture like taffy, gave it a great heave. It uncoiled from
his hand like rope. The Relict crouched low. No telling what devilry
would occur to the creature. He and all the rest of them—
unpredictable! The Relict valued their flesh as food; but they also
would eat him if opportunity offered. In the competition he was at a
great disadvantage. Their random acts baffled him. If, seeking to
escape, he ran, the worst terror would begin. The direction he set his
face was seldom the direction the varying frictions of the ground let
him move. But the Organisms were as random and uncommitted as
the environment, and the double set of vagaries sometimes
compounded, sometimes canceled each other. In the latter case the
Organisms might catch him....
It was inexplicable. But then, what was not? The word "explanation"
had no meaning.
They were moving toward him; had they seen him? He flattened
himself against the sullen yellow rock.
The two Organisms paused not far away. He could hear their
sounds, and crouched, sick from conflicting pangs of hunger and
fear.
Alpha sank to his knees, lay flat on his back, arms and legs flung out
at random, addressing the sky in a series of musical cries, sibilants,
guttural groans. It was a personal language he had only now
improvised, but Beta understood him well.
"A vision," cried Alpha, "I see past the sky. I see knots, spinning
circles. They tighten into hard points; they will never come undone."
Beta perched on a pyramid, glanced over this shoulder at the
mottled sky.
"An intuition," chanted Alpha, "a picture out of the other time. It is
hard, merciless, inflexible."
Beta poised on the pyramid, dove through the glassy surface, swam
under Alpha, emerged, lay flat beside him.
"Observe the Relict on the hillside. In his blood is the whole of the
old race—the narrow men with minds like cracks. He has exuded the
intuition. Clumsy thing—a blunderer," said Alpha.
"They are all dead, all of them," said Beta. "Although three or four
remain." (When past, present and future are no more than ideas left
over from another era, like boats on a dry lake—then the completion
of a process can never be defined.)
Alpha said, "This is the vision. I see the Relicts swarming the Earth;
then whisking off to nowhere, like gnats in the wind. This is behind
us."
The Organisms lay quiet, considering the vision.
A rock, or perhaps a meteor, fell from the sky, struck into the surface
of the pond. It left a circular hole which slowly closed. From another
part of the pool a gout of fluid splashed into the air, floated away.
Alpha spoke: "Again—the intuition comes strong! There will be lights
in the sky."
The fever died in him. He hooked a finger into the air, hoisted himself
to his feet.
Beta lay quiet. Slugs, ants, flies, beetles were crawling on him,
boring, breeding. Alpha knew that Beta could arise, shake off the
insects, stride off. But Beta seemed to prefer passivity. That was well
enough. He could produce another Beta should he choose, or a
dozen of him. Sometimes the world swarmed with Organisms, all
sorts, all colors, tall as steeples, short and squat as flower-pots.
"I feel a lack," said Alpha. "I will eat the Relict." He set forth, and
sheer chance brought him near to the ledge of yellow rock. Finn the
Relict sprang to his feet in panic.

Alpha tried to communicate, so that Finn might pause while Alpha

ate. But Finn had no grasp for the many-valued overtones of Alpha's
voice. He seized a rock, hurled it at Alpha. The rock puffed into a
cloud of dust, blew back into the Relict's face.
Alpha moved closer, extended his long arms. The Relict kicked. His
feet went out from under him, and he slid out on the plain. Alpha
ambled complacently behind him. Finn began to crawl away. Alpha
moved off to the right—one direction was as good as another. He
collided with Beta, and began to eat Beta instead of the Relict. The
Relict hesitated; then approached and, joining Alpha, pushed chunks
of pink flesh into his mouth.
Alpha said to the Relict, "I was about to communicate an intuition to
him whom we dine upon. I will speak to you."
Finn could not understand Alpha's personal language. He ate as
rapidly as possible.
Alpha spoke on. "There will be lights in the sky. The great lights."
Finn rose to his feet and, warily watching Alpha, seized Beta's legs,
began to pull him toward the hill. Alpha watched with quizzical
unconcern.
It was hard work for the spindly Relict. Sometimes Beta floated;
sometimes he wafted off on the air; sometimes he adhered to the
terrain. At last he sank into a knob of granite which froze around him.
Finn tried to jerk Beta loose, and then to pry him up with a stick,
without success.
He ran back and forth in an agony of indecision. Beta began to
collapse, wither, like a jellyfish on hot sand. The Relict abandoned
the hulk. Too late, too late! Food going to waste! The world was a
hideous place of frustration!

Temporarily his belly was full. He started back up the crag, and
presently found the camp, where the four other Relicts waited—two
ancient males, two females. The females, Gisa and Reak, like Finn,
had been out foraging. Gisa had brought in a slab of lichen; Reak a
bit of nameless carrion.
The old men, Boad and Tagart, sat quietly waiting either for food or
for death.
The women greeted Finn sullenly. "Where is the food you went forth
to find?"
"I had a whole carcass," said Finn. "I could not carry it."
Boad had slyly stolen the slab of lichen and was cramming it into his
mouth. It came alive, quivered and exuded a red ichor which was
poison, and the old man died.
"Now there is food," said Finn. "Let us eat."
But the poison created a putrescence; the body seethed with blue
foam, flowed away of its own energy.
The women turned to look at the other old man, who said in a
quavering voice, "Eat me if you must—but why not choose Reak,
who is younger than I?"
Reak, the younger of the women, gnawing on the bit of carrion,
made no reply.
Finn said hollowly, "Why do we worry ourselves? Food is ever more
difficult, and we are the last of all men."
"No, no," spoke Reak. "Not the last. We saw others on the green
mound."
"That was long ago," said Gisa. "Now they are surely dead."
"Perhaps they have found a source of food," suggested Reak.
Finn rose to his feet, looked across the plain. "Who knows? Perhaps
there is a more pleasant land beyond the horizon."
"There is nothing anywhere but waste and evil creatures," snapped
Gisa.
"What could be worse than here?" Finn argued calmly.
No one could find grounds for disagreement.
"Here is what I propose," said Finn. "Notice this tall peak. Notice the
layers of hard air. They bump into the peak, they bounce off, they
float in and out and disappear past the edge of sight. Let us all climb
this peak, and when a sufficiently large bank of air passes, we will
throw ourselves on top, and allow it to carry us to the beautiful
regions which may exist just out of sight."
There was argument. The old man Tagart protested his feebleness;
the women derided the possibility of the bountiful regions Finn
envisioned, but presently, grumbling and arguing, they began to
clamber up the pinnacle.

It took a long time; the obsidian was soft as jelly, and Tagart several
times professed himself at the limit of his endurance. But still they
climbed, and at last reached the pinnacle. There was barely room to
stand. They could see in all directions, far out over the landscape, till
vision was lost in the watery gray.
The women bickered and pointed in various directions, but there was
small sign of happier territory. In one direction blue-green hills
shivered like bladders full of oil. In another direction lay a streak of
black—a gorge or a lake of clay. In another direction were blue-
green hills—the same they had seen in the first direction; somehow
there had been a shift. Below was the plain, gleaming like an
iridescent beetle, here and there pocked with black velvet spots,
overgrown with questionable vegetation.
They saw Organisms, a dozen shapes loitering by ponds, munching
vegetable pods or small rocks or insects. There came Alpha. He
moved slowly, still awed by his vision, ignoring the other Organisms.
Their play went on, but presently they stood quiet, sharing the
oppression.
On the obsidian peak, Finn caught hold of a passing filament of air,
drew it in. "Now—all on, and we sail away to the Land of Plenty."
"No," protested Gisa, "there is no room, and who knows if it will fly in
the right direction?"
"Where is the right direction?" asked Finn. "Does anyone know?"
No one knew, but the women still refused to climb aboard the
filament. Finn turned to Tagart. "Here, old one, show these women
how it is; climb on!"
"No, no," he cried. "I fear the air; this is not for me."
"Climb on, old man, then we follow."
Wheezing and fearful, clenching his hands deep into the spongy
mass, Tagart pulled himself out onto the air, spindly shanks hanging
over into nothing. "Now," spoke Finn, "who next?"
The women still refused. "You go then, yourself," cried Gisa.
"And leave you, my last guarantee against hunger? Aboard now!"
"No. The air is too small; let the old one go and we will follow on a
larger."
"Very well." Finn released his grip. The air floated off over the plain,
Tagart straddling and clutching for dear life.
They watched him curiously. "Observe," said Finn, "how fast and
easily moves the air. Above the Organisms, over all the slime and
uncertainty."
But the air itself was uncertain, and the old man's raft dissolved.
Clutching at the departing wisps, Tagart sought to hold his cushion
together. It fled from under him, and he fell.

On the peak the three watched the spindly shape flap and twist on its
way to earth far below.
"Now," Reak exclaimed vexatiously, "we even have no more meat."
"None," said Gisa, "except the visionary Finn himself."
They surveyed Finn. Together they would more than outmatch him.
"Careful," cried Finn. "I am the last of the Men. You are my women,
subject to my orders."
They ignored him, muttering to each other, looking at him from the
side of their faces. "Careful!" cried Finn. "I will throw you both from
this peak."
"That is what we plan for you," said Gisa.
They advanced with sinister caution.
"Stop! I am the last Man!"
"We are better off without you."
"One moment! Look at the Organisms!"
The women looked. The Organisms stood in a knot, staring at the
sky.
"Look at the sky!"
The women looked; the frosted glass was cracking, breaking, curling
aside.
"The blue! The blue sky of old times!"
A terribly bright light burnt down, seared their eyes. The rays
warmed their naked backs.
"The sun," they said in awed voices. "The sun has come back to
Earth."
The shrouded sky was gone; the sun rode proud and bright in a sea
of blue. The ground below churned, cracked, heaved, solidified.
They felt the obsidian harden under their feet; its color shifted to
glossy black. The Earth, the sun, the galaxy, had departed the region
of freedom; the other time with its restrictions and logic was once
more with them.
"This is Old Earth," cried Finn. "We are Men of Old Earth! The land is
once again ours!"
"And what of the Organisms?"
"If this is the Earth of old, then let the Organisms beware!"
The Organisms stood on a low rise of ground beside a runnel of
water that was rapidly becoming a river flowing out onto the plain.
Alpha cried, "Here is my intuition! It is exactly as I knew. The
freedom is gone; the tightness, the constriction are back!"
"How will we defeat it?" asked another Organism.
"Easily," said a third. "Each must fight a part of the battle. I plan to
hurl myself at the sun, and blot it from existence." And he crouched,
threw himself into the air. He fell on his back and broke his neck.
"The fault," said Alpha, "is in the air; because the air surrounds all
things."
Six Organisms ran off in search of air and, stumbling into the river,
drowned.
"In any event," said Alpha, "I am hungry." He looked around for
suitable food. He seized an insect which stung him. He dropped it.
"My hunger remains."
He spied Finn and the two women descending from the crag. "I will
eat one of the Relicts," he said. "Come, let us all eat."
Three of them started off—as usual in random directions. By chance
Alpha came face to face with Finn. He prepared to eat, but Finn
picked up a rock. The rock remained a rock, hard, sharp, heavy. Finn
swung it down, taking joy in the inertia. Alpha died with a crushed
skull. One of the other Organisms attempted to step across a
crevasse twenty feet wide and disappeared into it; the other sat
down, swallowed rocks to assuage his hunger, and presently went
into convulsions.
Finn pointed here and there around the fresh new land. "In that
quarter, the new city, like that of the legends. Over here the farms,
the cattle."
"We have none of these," protested Gisa.
"No," said Finn. "Not now. But once more the sun rises and sets,
once more rock has weight and air has none. Once more water falls
as rain and flows to the sea." He stepped forward over the fallen
Organism. "Let us make plans."
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