Kraal (also spelt craal or kraul) is an Afrikaans and South African English word for an enclosure for cattle or other livestock, located within an African homestead or village surrounded by a palisade, mud wall, or other fencing, roughly circular in form. The word derives from the Portuguese curral, similar to the Spanish corral, though it is sometimes mistakenly said to have an African origin. The term primarily refers to the type of dispersed homestead characteristic of the Nguni-speaking peoples of southern Africa.