Kraal
A cattle enclosure in southern Africa, traditionally at the heart of the homestead.
Also: isibaya, cattle enclosure
Kraal is the Afrikaans word, from the Portuguese curral, for a livestock enclosure, and also for a homestead or village in southern Africa. Among the Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Tswana and other peoples the cattle enclosure, isibaya in Zulu, traditionally stood at the centre of the homestead, with houses arranged around it. It was a place of the men and of the ancestors, where meetings and ceremonies took place and where the head of the homestead might be buried. Archaeologists call this layout the Central Cattle Pattern and trace it back many centuries. Cattle given in lobola were kept and shown there.