Sjambok

{{Short description|South African leather whip}} {{Infobox weapon | name = Sjambok | image = 295px | caption = A {{convert|90|cm|ft|0|abbr=on}} plastic sjambok used by South African police | origin = Dutch Cape Colony (now part of South Africa) | type = Whip  | is_ranged = | is_bladed = | is_explosive = | is_artillery = | is_vehicle = | is_missile = | is_UK =  | service = | used_by = | wars =  | designer = | design_date = | manufacturer = | unit_cost = | production_date = | number = | variants =  | spec_label = | weight = | length = {{convert|90|to|150|cm}} | part_length = | width = | height = | diameter = | crew = | passengers =  | cartridge = | cartridge_weight = | caliber = | barrels = | action = | rate = | velocity = | range = | max_range = | feed = | sights =  | breech = | recoil = | carriage = | elevation = | traverse =  | blade_type = | hilt_type = | sheath_type = | head_type = | haft_type =  | filling = | filling_weight = | detonation = | yield =  | armour = | primary_armament = | secondary_armament = | engine = | engine_power = | pw_ratio = | transmission = | payload_capacity = | suspension = | clearance = | fuel_capacity = | vehicle_range = | speed = | guidance = | steering =  | wingspan = | propellant = | ceiling = | altitude = | depth = | boost = | accuracy = | launch_platform = | transport = }}

The '''sjambok''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ʃ|æ|m|b|ʌ|k|,_|-|b|ɒ|k}}),<ref>{{cite web|title=Sjambok|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sjambok|work=Freedictionary.com|access-date=13 February 2014|archive-date=21 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021083509/https://www.thefreedictionary.com/sjambok|url-status=live}}</ref> or '''litupa''', is a heavy leather whip. It is traditionally made from adult hippopotamus or rhinoceros hide, but it is also commonly made out of plastic.

A strip of the animal's hide is cut and carved into a strip {{convert|90|to|150|cm|ft|0}} long, tapering from about {{convert|1|in|mm|0|abbr=on|disp=flip}} thick at the handle to about {{convert|3/8|in|mm|0|abbr=on|disp=flip}} 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 the apartheid era South African Police, and used for riot control.

Peter Hathaway Capstick describes a sjambok as a short swordlike whip made from rhino pizzle leather that could lay a man open like a straight razor.<ref>Peter Capstick, ''Death in the Long Grass'', p. 243</ref>

The sjambok was heavily used by the Voortrekkers driving their oxen while migrating from the Cape 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. {{Corporal punishment}}

==Use by police== ===South Africa=== In South Africa, use of the sjambok by police is sometimes seen as synonymous with the apartheid 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.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2000/may/28/features.magazine37 | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Rough justice | first=Decca | last=Aitkenhead | date=28 May 2000 | access-date=23 May 2010}}</ref> South African police officers favoured the sjambok, with the South African Police stating that they inflicted less injury compared to the wooden 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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wren |first=Christopher |date=12 September 1989 |title=South African Police to End the Use of Whips |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/12/world/south-african-police-to-end-the-use-of-whips.html |access-date=24 September 2023 |archive-date=21 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021083616/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/12/world/south-african-police-to-end-the-use-of-whips.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===United Kingdom=== In 1963, an enquiry into the police force of Sheffield in the United Kingdom found that rhino whips had been used on suspects.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.thestar.co.uk/lifestyle/features/midweek-retro-power-corruption-and-lies-1-6218241#comments-area | work=The Star| location=Sheffield| title=MIDWEEK RETRO - Power, corruption and lies... |date=6 November 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160430103315/http://www.thestar.co.uk/lifestyle/features/midweek-retro-power-corruption-and-lies-1-6218241#comments-area| access-date=9 August 2015| archive-date=30 April 2016}}</ref>

==Other types== {{See also|Atrocities in the Congo Free State}}{{unreferenced section|date=April 2013}}

The name seems to have originated as ''cambuk'' in Indonesia, where it was the name of a wooden rod for punishing slaves, where it was possibly derived from the Persian ''chabouk'' or ''chabuk''. When Malay 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 into Afrikaans, spelled as ''sambok''. It is known in Bengali as ''chabuk''.

In the Congo Free State, where it was called the ''chicotte'', the whip was notoriously used to terrorise native labourers and countless other civilians, including children. It was mainly used as an instrument of torture and mutilation by the ''Force Publique'', the primarily-native military that was used to suppress native dissent and uphold colonial rule.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Belgian Congo {{!}} World Civilizations II (HIS102) – Biel |url=https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-fmcc-worldcivilization2/chapter/the-belgian-congo/ |access-date=2026-05-03 |website=courses.lumenlearning.com}}</ref> After 1908, when the Congo Free State was dissolved in the wake of international outcry at the widespread human rights abuses, the new Belgian administration made some effort to reform the colony, but the ''chicotte'' remained widely used. It was only formally prohibited in 1960, upon Democratic Congolese independence.

The instrument is also known as ''imvubu'' (hippopotamus in Zulu), ''kiboko'' (hippopotamus in Swahili) and as ''mnigolo'' (hippopotamus in Malinké). In the Portuguese African colonies, it was called a ''chicote'', from the Portuguese word for whip, and whence the French ''chicotte'' derived, or ''fimbo'' and was used to discipline indigenous labourers, leading to life-long mutilation and often 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.

In north Africa, particularly Egypt, the whip was called a kurbash, Arabic for whip. The term ''shaabuug'' is used in the Somali language; it can also refer to a generic leather whip.

==In popular culture== In the film ''Would You Rather'', players are given the option to stab a fellow contestant with an ice pick or whip another contestant with a sjambok.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Catsoulis |first=Jeannette |date=8 February 2013 |title=Torture on the One Hand, Abuse on the Other |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/movies/would-you-rather-starring-brittany-snow.html |access-date=24 May 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=21 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021083701/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/movies/would-you-rather-starring-brittany-snow.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In Willard Price's ''Elephant Adventure'', the cruel Arab slaver known as the Thunder Man enjoys flogging captives with a sjambok made from hippopotamus hide.

In the novel V. by Thomas Pynchon the Sjambok is a major feature in the narrative of the Herero Wars, where it serves as a symbol for the violence and sexual perversion of the German and European colonizers.

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Whips Category:African weapons Category:Afrikaans words and phrases Category:South African English