Scapegoats, Suspicion, and Truth At first, it was only a change in the air around the farm. Conversations paused when someone approached. A glance held a little longer than usual. No one could yet explain what was wrong, but the quiet sense that something was unfolding had begun to settle over us. Sometimes communities begin to change long before anyone can explain why. The Atmosphere of Suspicion When uncertainty spreads through a group, people begin comparing observations. A small remark here, an uneasy feeling there. Gradually, those fragments gather into patterns, and before long, suspicion begins to settle somewhere. Looking back now, I realise how easily moments like that can drift toward something else entirely. René Girard and the Scapegoat Mechanism Years later, I encountered the work of the French thinker René Girard , who described what he called the Scapegoat Theory . Girard observed that when communities experience tension or fear, they often restore a sense of ...

  The Space Between Tribes: Faith, Identity & Belonging I have been called many things in my life, but rarely have I fitted the names comfortably. On the farms of my South African childhood, I belonged without quite belonging — a white boy speaking isiZulu, moving easily where invisible lines were meant to stand. Years later, in the United Kingdom, I discovered that one can cross oceans and still remain an oddity of sorts. This space is not an argument, nor a defence. It is simply a place to reflect on how a life lived between tribes slowly widens into something steadier than either tribe. In my early years of formation, I was on farms not far from Sharpeville, though as a child I did not yet understand the weight that name would carry in history. The land was my first teacher. Red soil that clung to bare feet. The sweet-sour scent of cattle. Wind pressing through blue gums planted as windbreaks. Men and women who worked the land with us, who spoke to each other in rhythms diff...