A ''kgotla'' (English pronunciation or ) is a public meeting, community council, or traditional law court of a

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

village and in rural

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It is usually headed by the village chief or headman, and community decisions are always arrived at by consensus. Headmen usually work as the advisers to the chief. No one may interrupt while another is having their say. Because of this tradition, Botswana claims to be one of the world's oldest

democracies Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

. The custom of allowing everyone their full say is carried over into meetings of all kinds, from discussing a bill to a staff briefing. ''Kgotla'' can also refer to the place where such meetings are held. This can range from a few chairs under a shade canopy to a permanent ground with covered seating. In both senses, the term is a

loan word A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing (linguistics), borrowing. Borrowing ...

in Botswana English from

Setswana Tswana, also known by its native name Setswana, is a Bantu language indigenous to Southern Africa and spoken by about 8.2 million people. It is closely related to the Northern Sotho and Southern Sotho languages, as well as the Kgalaga ...

, where it means ''court''. In

South African English South African English (SAfE, SAfEn, SAE, en-ZA) is the List of dialects of English, set of English language dialects native to South Africans. History British Empire, British settlers first arrived in the South African region in 1795, ...

, a ''lekgotla'' is a meeting called by government to discuss strategy planning. The term is still a loan word from

, again meaning ''court''. Usually there are men who stay at the Kgotla mostly during the day. These men are usually sent to go and call law defaulters.

References

External links

Example of use in South African context
Retrieved 21 May 2008.

from the Botswana Embassy, Japan
Company providing management trainings with Kgotla
Law of Botswana Community {{Botswana-stub