For my weekly writing spot on this site, see the One-Minute Mystic, with a new meditation posted every Monday. Also see The Village, the story of Misty Longings, England's most beautiful village, posted episode by episode earlier this year.       It was in a holy place that we learned Satan is often a label. In a small church on the outskirts of Eldoret, 30 Kenyans died. And four weeks on, little appears resolved. The victims had been locked in, and the building set on fire. Many were children. Elsewhere in the country, entire villages were razed to the ground, as neighbour turned on neighbour. A man who escaped from one attack, returned to find his blind father dismembered and disembowelled. He knew the names of all those who had done this, so presumably his father knew them too. And so once again, we wander through the smouldering debris, and reflect on the anatomy of atrocity. Kenya is a land of tribes, and every Kenyan knows their own. There are over 40 in the country, with ethnicity deeply ingrained. Tribal affiliations do not always sit comfortably with the democratic process, but they have a longer history, and for the poor at least, meet a most practical need. Living on the edge, cooperation with others is a prerequisite for survival. And your family and your tribe are the people that "when you have to go there, they have to let you in." To the poor, tribal allegiance is as natural and necessary as the African sun. The current President, Mwai Kibaki, is a member of the largest tribe, the Kikuyu, numbering 22 per cent of the country. Raila Odinga, his main rival, belongs to the third largest tribe, the Luo, representing 13 per cent. His running mate, however, is of the Luyah tribe, the second largest, representing 14 per cent of Kenyans. And it was just minutes after Kibaki was confirmed and sworn in as President, that something in the country snapped – and three tribes went to war. Tribes are more social networks than armies – but recent history shows they are vulnerable to exploitation by politicians. Fourteen year-old Kenyans did not start manning/boying road blocks, without some serious manipulation of feelings. We have witnessed such exploitation before, of course. In 1994, a small power bloc in the ruling Hutu party, exploited tribal affiliation in Rwanda, to effect the mass murder of the Tutsis. It is not just about tribe, however. There is also a strong economic strand in recent killings. Certainly, it is no coincidence that those who commit tribal violence are generally unemployed young men, promised a better future. Light the fuse of dormant prejudice, promise better times ahead, and stand back. Labels help people to feel they belong. Kikuyu? Luo? Protestant? Gay? Scottish? Serb? White? Arsenal? Conservative? Labels gather a group around some shared assumptions. If given the opportunity, they then narrow down the parameters of reflective thought among adherents, and in time, baptise negativity. "This is who we like; this who we don't like." Belonging then ceases to be about personal support – and becomes instead, a dull experience of hostility and judgement. This is what some call "home". And this is why Satan is very often a label. More writings © Simon Parke