Calculate your lobola

Lobola is a time honoured wedding tradition in South Africa.

It’s known to cause both the prospective bride and groom to have sleepless nights leading up to the nuptials, but for completely different reasons.

While  the woman is worried about that uncle – you know the one that always never has anything to say until he’s had some liquid courage? – the man is worried about how much money her family will ask his family for and if he can afford it. Needless to say, the day of the negotiations is stressful.

But never fear, good people of South Africa. Help is on the way!

We’re here to let you know that you now can lessen your stress by using this lobola calculator. While we can’t help you with that uncle of yours, we can help you brace yourself for the amount you’re in for.

The Lobola Calculator app is easy and simple to use, and provides users with a nice Facebook post, but it’s not to be taken seriously.

How does it work?

You begin by stating whether you’re male or female and then answer a series of questions like how much you weigh, what your height is and what qualifications you have.

And at the end of the questionnaire, you find out how many cows you’re worth, in livestock and in Rands.

To test the theory, a member of The Citizen’s digital team tried it out and found out that her lobola would be 11 live cows or a whopping R85 500.

We then tried it again, this time using a fictional, unemployed, 40 year old woman with 3 kids, who has been married before.

Her ‘bride price’ was -2 cows. Good thing this is a game, because real life just doesn’t work that way.

Have you tried the app? What did you think of it? Let us know in the comments below.