A separate application accustomed assess lobola has taken Southern Africa from the storm, with several feminine (and you will dudes) deploying it to determine just how much he could be value
Software designer Robert Matseneng has established an excellent Lobola Calculator – a software enabling men and women to measure how many cows it are worth.
Lobola, or magadi since it is named in my own community, was a historical traditions where a man will pay a certain price to possess a beneficial female’s hand-in relationships. In earlier times, the purchase price was paid in the form of cattle, however these weeks cash is a very simple treatment for shell out lobola.
Away from curiosity, I installed the brand new application observe exactly what it barometer getting used determine a women’s worthy of in the community involved.
In facts, this would be an absurd amount of money to ask for
On top of other things, brand new software examines a woman’s height, pounds and just how attractive she’s (between “very scorching” to help you “not at all”), properties I think have nothing related to simply how much lobola a person is to spend. Used, questions regarding their particular training and the amount of youngsters she has would also be used into consideration of the household involved immediately after negotiations have begun.
With respect to the application, after factoring all these in, my family you may inquire about lobola out of R74,five hundred in my situation – the equivalent of nine genuine cows. Dad will be therefore happy.
A potential suitor might be within same years as i are and you can wouldn’t be in a position to pay for one kind of cash. The brand new affordability out of lobola, and you can planning for lifetime following the matrimony, was a factor of numerous group to consider prior to settling on an amount.
Matseneng should get kudos for having the newest software inquire users to mean whether they is actually female and male. This shows that the application is not especially geared towards female. However, we cannot overlook the fact that that it application aims at feminine over it is within men.
A beneficial Nigerian equivalent of brand new lobola software, Bride Rate, was launched a year ago. Bride-to-be Price uses a very certain barometer from inside the calculating a beneficial woman’s worth; it considers their particular cooking performance, complexion, whether or not she has tattoos, and whether or not she actually is “prayer warrior” otherwise “pub girl”.
I’ve visited keep in mind that lobola is not from the to invest in a woman, but New York, NY in USA brides agency rather from the integrating family members until the wedding ceremony – in my own culture, fulfilling the target groom and his parents usually simply happens just after defines lobola have chosen to take put (otherwise whenever a few falls expecting outside marriage). Getting Mandla otherwise Tshepo home to have a sunday is extremely looked down through to in my family relations, because it’s a number of almost every other black colored group.
Although there are good, cultural aspects of lobola that numerous individuals still need certainly to keep onto, one cannot refuse new patriarchal characteristics of routine – a woman’s really worth is claimed to cut back depending on the amount away from pupils she’s got and you may, in many cases, if she actually is a beneficial virgin or perhaps not. That it standards has never been applied to men.
There was a clue off humour so you’re able to programs such as (Matseneng claims one to “actually it actually was all the a joke”) however,, since perceptions from morality and you can respectability can be used to police ladies’ behaviour, it is quite frustrating.
Who can forget the swimming instructor, Tim Osrin, which take down a ladies who had been walking down the road, upcoming rationalized their methods of the saying he envision she is good sex staff (into implication you to definitely sex professionals receive and you may need assault), or the men whom stripped and you may defeat an earlier woman on a great Johannesburg cab rank simply because she dared to put on an excellent micro top.