How to Use the Labola Calculator
Overview
Created by Robert Matsaneng, The South African Lobola Calculator is an app that enables people to measure how many cows they are worth.
Lobola is a traditional practice that signifies a token of appreciation from the groom’s family to the bride’s family as a way of thanking them for raising her well.
It’s a longstanding tradition where a man pays a certain price for a woman’s hand in marriage.
In the past, lobola payments were made by using cows. Nowadays cash is king.
This has often led to a number of challenges in terms of preserving the ideals and true significance of the practice.
Quite often greed overtakes the values of ubuntu and fostering relations. This has left many couples wondering how much should be paid and what the money is used for.
Those with a good sense of humour won’t mind the creation of the tongue-in-cheek Lobola app developed by Matsaneng.
The app measures a woman’s height, weight and how attractive she is (ranging from “really hot” to “not at all”).
Factors that are taken into account in reality include:
Education, number of children she has, affordability and planning for life after the wedding.
The app is not only targeted at women.
Since it was created, the South African Lobola Calculator has introduced a number of changes. The updated app has an added ability to convert the default price (ZAR) to Dollars, Euros and Pounds. “This is a fun app to calculate how much lobola you’re worth,” says Matsaneng.
“It’s simple, fun and meant to be playful, so enjoy.”
After answering the questions, you find out how many cows you’re worth, in livestock and in Rands. The app attracted over 74 000 downloads within the first four months. It attracted a lot of attention and received a lot of criticism from some people.
A range of new features have been introduced.
“We want to stay true to the fun experience by adding game-like elements to the app,” said Donald Baillie, managing director at Digital Peppa, a full service mobile application development house and developers of new and improved Lobola Calculator App.
