This chapter explores Botswana’s participatory democracy through the enduring institution of the kgotla, a traditional village assembly that exemplifies one of the most robust living models of direct, deliberative democracy in the world. Based on fieldwork conducted in May 2023, it argues that kgotla democracy offers both a counter-narrative to Eurocentric models of democratic development and a living example of what African democracy might have become had it not been interrupted by colonization. While Botswana’s national institutions reflect the British Westminster model, its political culture remains deeply rooted in precolonial traditions of self-rule, civic deliberation, and community accountability. The chapter critiques the scholarly neglect of Botswana’s indigenous political institutions and highlights the theoretical and practical relevance of kgotla democracy for contemporary democratic theory, particularly in the Global South. It concludes that Botswana’s political success, including its good governance and economic stability, can be attributed less to its resource wealth and more to the vitality of its democratic traditions rooted in community deliberation and popular participation.