If you are from Africa, or other parts of the world where bride price is practiced, then you will know that this is not a subject equated with neutral positions... In using the practice of lobola as a framework for negotiation, I am not looking to either defend or promote the tradition, but merely to acknowledge that is a very dynamic part of African culture and to suggest that there is much that can be learned about negotiation from observing how the bride price is arrived at, agreed upon and consequently paid, or not.
As students of negotiation, we need to look beyond the behaviours and understand the values, attitudes, and beliefs that frame this tradition. In so doing, we can move beyond the obvious and find greater understanding about both effective and ineffective negotiation.  Put simply, you can’t judge a bull by his horns. . .