| Sjambok | |
|---|---|
.jpg) A 90 cm (3 ft) plastic sjambok used by South African police | |
| Type | Whip |
| Place of origin | Africa |
| Specifications | |
| Length | 90 to 150 centimetres (35 to 59 in) |
Thesjambok (/ˈʃæmbʌk,-bɒk/),[1] orlitupa, is a heavy leatherwhip. It is traditionally made from adulthippopotamus orrhinoceros hide, but it is also commonly made out of plastic.
A strip of the animal's hide is cut and carved into a strip 0.9 to 1.5 metres (3 to 5 ft) long, tapering from about 25 mm (1 in) thick at the handle to about 10 mm (3⁄8 in) at the tip. This strip is then rolled until reaching a tapered-cylindrical form. The resulting whip is both flexible and durable. A plastic version was made for theapartheid eraSouth African Police, and used forriot control.
Peter Hathaway Capstick describes a sjambok as a short swordlike whip made fromrhinopizzle leather that could lay a man open like astraight razor.[2]
The sjambok was heavily used by theVoortrekkers driving their oxen while migrating from theCape of Good Hope, and remains in use by herdsmen to drive cattle. They are widely available in South Africa from informal traders to regular stores from a variety of materials, lengths and thicknesses.
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In South Africa, use of the sjambok by police is sometimes seen as synonymous with theapartheid era, but its use on people started much earlier. It is sometimes used outside the official judiciary by people who carry out punishments imposed by extralegal courts.[3] South African police officers favoured the sjambok, with the South African Police stating that they inflicted less injury as compared to thewooden baton. Despite this, public perception of the sjambok was poor, both domestically and internationally. Allegations of police brutality concerning the sjambok were widespread, which eventually led to the sjambok being effectively banned for riot control in September 1989.[4]
In 1963, an enquiry into the police force ofSheffield in the United Kingdom found that rhino whips had been used on suspects.[5]
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The name seems to have originated ascambuk inIndonesia, where it was the name of a wooden rod for punishingslaves, where it was possibly derived from the Persianchabouk orchabuk. WhenMalay slaves arrived in South Africa in the 1800s, the instrument and its name were imported with them, the material was changed to hide, and the name was finally incorporated intoAfrikaans, spelled assambok. It is known inBengali aschabuk.
The instrument is also known asimvubu (hippopotamus inZulu),kiboko (hippopotamus inSwahili) and asmnigolo (hippopotamus inMalinké). In thePortuguese African colonies, theCongo Free State and theBelgian Congo, it was called achicote, from thePortuguese word for whip, orfimbo and was used to force labour from local people through flogging, sometimes to death. The official tariff for punishment in this case was lowered in time from twenty strokes to eight, then (in 1949) six, and progressively four and two, until flogging was outlawed completely in 1955. InNorth Africa, particularly Egypt, the whip was called akurbash,Arabic for whip. The termshaabuug is used in theSomali language; it can also refer to a generic leather whip.
In the filmWould You Rather, players are given the option to stab a fellow contestant with an ice pick or whip another contestant with a sjambok.[6]
InWillard Price'sElephant Adventure, the cruel Arab slaver known as the Thunder Man enjoys flogging captives with a sjambok made from hippopotamus hide.
In the novelV. byThomas Pynchon the Sjambok is a major feature in the narrative of theHerero Wars, where it serves as a symbol for the violence and sexual perversion of the German and European colonizers.