Family and Households
Batswana people typically have three homes: their home in the village, their home at the Lands where they grow their crops and their cattle-post where they keep the family’s livestock - cattle, goats and sheep. They mainly live in their village home between harvest and the new planting season. The women care for the crops although the men will help with the heavy work such as ploughing, The men and boys take care of the family livestock at the cattle-post
Plan of a typical sub-kgotla and households
A household lives within a lwa-lapa . Lwalapa can have two meanings according to context:
1. The whole area or yard in which a family build their houses in their sub-kgotla. In the plan below the Headman's Iwa-lapa there are 3 houses.
2. The mud-walled and floored enclosures built around individual houses of the yard. These walled areas may link two houses together. Such walled areas are often originally built and/or re-decorated for weddings and Botsetsi parties.
The Village Home
See section on “Houses” for further details