Ilobolo is a payment that is paid by isoka (husband to be ) to ingoduso (wife to be) or ilobolo can be paid to a child, we will cover that below. The process of paying ilobolo is called ukulobola. The payment can be either in a form of cows or cash. Most africans in townships and surbabs dont have cows, this is where the cows are converted into cash. Amabheka izinkomo zelobolo. Akukhokhwa amalobolo. Kukhokhwa izinkomo zelobolo
Number of cows is not known is advance, and there is discount when paying lobola in cash, an example: Currently a cow costs around R15 000 (2021 inflation), but when paying in terms of cash you would pay around R4500 per cow, but keep in mind that the price of the lobola cows are now the same, inkomo kababa is the most expensive, followed by inkomo kamama, then the rest of the cows can be of the same amount.
Why do we pay ilobola? The intention is to build a relationship between two families, the family of umakoti (wife) and the family of umkhwenyana (husband). The intention of ilobola was never to make money or profit but it is to unite both families. A governor of natal Sir Theophilus Shepstone changed the number of lobola cows from maximum of 3 to 11 cows, the intention was to make it hard for Nguni people to get married.
Is there any reason for having ilobolo? Maybe a question should be is there any reason for getting married? A lobola is a traditional wedding process for nguni people, white wedding is a tradion for white people that originates in Great Britain, so do you want to stop your tradition and follow other people's tradition? Is ilobola not expensive? With ilobola you dont pay all cows at the sametime, and the number of cows to pay is not known, in zulu some cows are reserved (izinkomo ziyalengiswa) in case umkhwenyana (husband) mistreat umakoti, then abasemzini (woman's family) will issue a fine in terms of cows. If you believe on our culture then you can not question whether ilobolo is important or not, our ancestors and elders are expecting us to follow that path.
What tends to be expensive is for africans to have both white wedding and traditional wedding. White wedding is more expensive than african wedding.
The number of lobola cows is not known in advanced, it is discussed. We have head about 11 cows for lobola, but originally ilobola was one to three cows before Sir Portshestone, the governer of kwazulu natal changed the number of ilobolo cows.
There are two types of ilobola:uhla lwezinkomo zokulobola umakoti. IZINKOMO ZELOBOLO: