In Botswana, the kgotla is both a place and a practice: an open meeting ground where the community gathers, speaks and works toward agreement. A Setswana proverb sums up the logic behind it — kgosi ke kgosi ka batho. A chief is a chief through the people.
A study in the International Journal of Lifelong Education compared that traditional view of leadership with how teachers in Botswana understand leadership in their schools. The kgotla system, the authors explain, engages everyone in discussion on matters of community or national concern. It goes back to pre-colonial leadership, in which a leader leads with the support and active participation of those led.
The contrast with school life was sharp. Head teachers were widely seen as the only leaders in the building, and many did not actively involve teachers in decisions. Their approach reflects a modern idea of leadership centered on the individual leader. The Setswana view focuses on group consensus and shared effort.
The authors argue for combining the two into a "tune" rather than a discord. Effective school leadership, they write, is possible when the head teacher is de-centered and works with teachers. They also recommend that the preparation of school leaders in Botswana draw on Setswana culture, so heads are not isolated by their position.
Political scientist Bernd Reiter, who visited Botswana in 2023, concluded that the kgotla tradition of regular village assemblies goes a long way toward explaining the country's stable, participatory governance.
Sources
Pheko, B., et al. (2008). Leadership from two cultural perspectives — a tune or discord: Botswana's experience. International Journal of Lifelong Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370802051397
Reiter, B. (2024). Participatory democracy in Southern Africa: Explaining Botswana's exceptionalism. Social Sciences. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13100519
