How many cows is your partner worth?

Valentine’s Day is approaching and as a quintessential romantic date, your partner is likely to present you with a wonderful and dreamed of gift. Gifts whose symbolic value may go far beyond the price paid for it. There are issues that are impossible to assess for sure. However, as of today an App makes it easier for us when it comes to putting a price on something as intangible as our partner. Developed in Africa and with a clear humorous tone, the “ lobola counter ”is an App capable of specifying how many cows our partner is worth. Without wanting to be an arbitrator between family conflicts in Kenya, Nigeria or South Africa , what this App does is calculate the price that families must agree to so that their children can get married; Well, this is how “ lobola ” is known as dowry in some African countries. The calculation, which is also offered in dollars and euros, takes into account various aspects of the couple, ranging from physical appearance to training or family responsibilities. Thus, a woman with university studies, who has not been a mother and has not been married, will be more expensive to the man’s family than another with less education with her children and has already passed through the altar. According to the calculator, the family of a girl of 27 years, 165 centimeters, 58 kilos and size 38, considered attractive, with university studies and employment, single and without children, will receive as a dowry nine cows or 6,651 Dollars. If the woman is 40 years old, 160 centimeters tall, weighs 80 kilos and wears a size 46, only has high school, does not work, has been married and has children, the calculation yields a negative balance of two cows or $ 1,339, which presumably she should pay the husband’s family. Controversial both for its concept and for addressing an extended tradition in Africa, the lobola calculator has achieved more than 20,000 downloads.