lobolan.
/ˈləʊbələ/ The South African native custom of marriage by purchase. Also, the price or present given for a bride according to this custom. Also attributive.
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society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > wedding or nuptials > [noun] > manner of marrying > bride-purchase
bride purchasea1860
wife-purchase1862
lobola1897
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > wedding or nuptials > gifts and payments > [noun] > bride-price
dower1382
dowry?a1505
marriage paymenta1652
bride price1863
mohar1863
lobola1905
bride wealth1931
kiddushin1936
1825 N. Isaacs Jrnl. 25 Oct. in Trav. E. Afr. (1836) I. iii. 49 Jacob had become enamoured of Enslopee's sister, and had sent three head of cattle to ‘Lololer’.
1897 Daily News 17 July 5/6 Mr. Rhodes..pointed out that the old system of lobola was equivalent to the custom of marriage settlement in vogue with the whites.
1901 Edinb. Rev. Oct. 302 The custom of lobola—i.e. the marriage gift of cattle to the bride's father—stands in the way of many Kafir marriages.
1905 Westm. Gaz. 19 Apr. 9/2 The native custom of passing cattle, known variously as ‘lobolo’, ‘ikazi’, and ‘bohadi’, in connexion with marriage.
1905 Westm. Gaz. 8 Sept. 5/1 Many of the natives are able to find the lobola for the luxury of additional wives.
1953 D. Lessing Five v. 248 And when our sister marries, he will have her cattle and her lobola money.
1957 G. Muldoon Trumpeting Herd ix. 95 According to the Angoni custom, the aunts and not the parents are responsible for fixing the Lobola, or payment for the bride.
1971 Weekend World (Johannesburg) 9 May 9/6 I have since paid part of the lobola to her parents.
1972 Police Rev. 24 Nov. 1520/3 [Rhodesia] A man may take, under tribal rites, as many wives as he can afford and he pays a bride price (called lobolo) for each.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1903; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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n.1825