Short answer:
About 4 to 6 cows, equivalent to US$1 500 to US$3 500 (depending on the price of one cow)
Long answer:
It depends. The three most important factors are:
Is she educated?
Is she a virgin?
Is he rich?
If the answer is no to all these questions, lobolo may be as low as $500 worth of domesticated animals. If yes, it may be as high as $20 000.
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| Picture By life Moments Media. Cattle are highly valued in a traditional set-up. |
How much time to pay?
Short answer:
A lifetime
Long answer:
It depends. While some Zimbabwean cultures allow a one-off payment, some cultures do not. On the other hand, the parents of the bride do usually want lobolo paid up before a lifetime is up. Like I said, it really depends on the people involved.
Below are a few more questions, together with answers from the old man.
Should we stop the practice?
No! You can’t just expect to marry somebody’s child and not pay lobolo. It’s so difficult to raise a child, so you have to pay lobolo for her. That’s how things have always been, and that’s how they should always be.
But isn’t that the thing that leads some men to abuse their wives? Don’t they always say they paid lobolo for their wives, and so they can do what they like?
No, the man who says that is foolish, because he isn’t following customary law when hes says something of that nature. It is not as if he bought his wife – he doesn’t own her. He paid lobolo according to customary law and that’s that. He is foolish to say he can do whatever he wants because he ‘paid for her.’
By eZimbabwe.
