The Tswana, or Batswana, make up about 85% of Botswana’s population and speak Setswana, a language closely related to Sesotho. Their ancestors migrated south between the 14th and 16th centuries and organized themselves into chiefdoms (merafe) ruled by chiefs called dikgosi, a structure that endured through the British Bechuanaland Protectorate until Botswana’s independence.
At the center of every traditional Tswana village is the kgotla, an open-air court where anyone present may speak and disputes are settled by consensus: a tradition many Batswana credit with Botswana’s record as one of Africa’s most stable democracies since independence.