ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 focuses on elected succession to village chiefship in Moremi, arguing that the kgotla, the village forum, is both a court of law and a space for deliberation, public ceremonial, and spectacular display. Although small, Moremi is the senior village among the Tswapong with claims to longevity, centrality, and absolute authenticity; hence Moremi’s chiefship is a symbolically elevated office. The kgotla embodies the village as a community and is thus also the site for struggles over its history and future destiny, its tlholego. Presiding over the kgotla, the village chief epitomises the community in his (or her) authoritative capacity but is also regarded as the current living representative in a chain of being from the distant past. The chapter highlights the vividness of memories of long-past political encounters with the state, local state, and factional village politics recently debated yet again in the kgotla, as though it had all happened just yesterday, instead of 40 years previously. It foregrounds certain pragmatics of politics set against moral and legal claims to authenticity and legitimacy in the contest for succession. On this basis, for the sake of a broader and comparative view, recent discussions of chiefship in Africa are briefly reconsidered.
