Haggling the Way to Virtue

Discomfort is avoided like the plague in our country but is actually a blessing. It visits us whenever patterns are broken or norms get uprooted, makes us squirm but also forces us to reassess. It can bring the invisible into plain view. It can take us to the place where insight happens to reside, where wisdom usually hangs out.

Many if not most Americans find haggling over the price of goods or services uncomfortable. We like price tags. Tell us what it costs, let us decide whether we want to take it or leave it. Much of the rest of the world is into bargaining. In a country like Tanzania, and everywhere else I’ve been on the African continent, dickering is a marketplace ritual, a national pastime.

Here, we barely tolerate offers and counteroffers for big purchases like vehicles and houses, finding these rare negotiations acutely stressful. In Tanzania, the price of everything from a piece of fruit to the smallest carved ornament is negotiable. There, people revel in the process, find …