Why Groups Blame One Person: Understanding Scapegoating (or a Dominant Group Turns on a Minority) It rarely begins with anger. More often than not, it begins with uncertainty. Something is not quite right. A situation feels unsettled. People sense that things are changing, but no one can yet say exactly why. Conversations begin to circle around the same questions, and gradually a shared unease takes shape. In moments like these, groups begin to look for clarity. And very often, that search leads to a person or a smaller group who can carry the weight of what no one fully understands. The Need for Explanation Human beings are not comfortable with uncertainty. When something goes wrong, we instinctively ask: Who is responsible? Where did this begin? How do we fix it? But real situations are often complex. Causes are rarely simple. Responsibility is often shared. In such moments, a group may begin to simplify the problem. Instead of holding the tension of comple...

  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...