The elderly founder of the Bahurutshe cultural village urged the current generation to desist from thinking that material things or love can make a marriage succeed. She said lobola was a form of thanksgiving to the bride's family. She said in Bahurutshe culture, lobola involved giving the family of the bride eight beasts. Usually, a house was also included and given to the couple that is just about to start married life.
Gliekman emphasised the importance of involving both parents for a marriage to be a success. She said if parents are brought in from the start, they can help advise the couple when things are not well. Batlokwa deputy chief, Michael 'Spokes' Gaborone, said just like any right of passage, marriage in Botswana has undergone changes in a globalising world. He said that paying lobola is an appreciation to the bride's family. "Lobola is a form of appreciating the bride's parents for letting the man have their daughter's hand in marriage," Gaborone said. He added that it is a thanksgiving to the bride's parents for taking care of their child until she becomes the woman she is and then granting their daughter's hand in marriage.
