Page 69 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 27 Final

Community

Village life and the place, is the most significant spot within any village.

Kgotla Recognized by all as a place of respect, it is always to be
Speaking about the found in the middle of the village or under the largest tree.
cultures of the Botswana

people, in the past, except Looking at the various aspects of the village life and the
for the semi-nomadic Kgotla of the Boswana people and how traditionally it was
Bushmen, most other a way of enforcing a communal sense of life and living, it
groups lived pastoral then begins to make sense that one way to break loose from
lifestyles in permanent the chokehold of current modernity and its many frustrating

settlements. Traditionally, tentacles is to return to the ways and cultures of life that
these villages were Africans are known for.
located (for defensive

reasons) in hilly regions, My prayer for you great people of Botswana is that you
or around reliable water will stay true to the beauty and the reality of a life-giving
sources where grazing spirit that you embody and through you, a much-awaited
conditions were best. awakening of the African people to further embrace life will
Homesteads, which be manifested. ISE! AMEN!

consist of circular huts,
built with reeds or mud, Facts about
have grass roofs and

are usually surrounded Botswana
by a pole or reed fence. Source: https://www.gov.bw/about-our-country
Communal eating places
and smaller huts built Head Of State
for storage purposes are His Excellency, Dr. Mokgweetsi

situated in the center of Eric Keabetswe Masisi (5th Pres-
the village. Every family ident)
is entitled to land, where

agricultural fields are Geography
planted, and there is a Country Size Botswana is a land-locked country
cattle post for keeping Botswana covers an area of dominated in geographical terms
livestock. 581,730km2 square kilometres. by the Kalahari Desert - a sand-

filled basin averaging 1,100 meters
The village heads Population above sea level. Botswana is bor-
or chiefs (kgosi) are 2, 292, 000 as per the last census dered by Zambia and Zimbabwe to
responsible for looking (2011). the northeast, Namibia to the north

after the affairs of the and west, and South Africa to the
community. The kgotla, Capital City south and southeast.
or traditional meeting Gaborone In the northern part of Botswana,

ISSUE 27 | MAY 2024 69