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Information about Sjambok

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A 3' (90 cm) plastic sjambok used by South African police
The sjambok or litupa is the traditional heavy leather whip of South Africa, sometimes seen as synonymous with apartheid but actually much older and still used outside the official judiciary. It is made from an adult hippopotamus (or rhinoceros) hide, or possibly from the penis of either species.

A strip of the animal's hide is cut and carved into a strip 3 to 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 m) long, tapering from about 1 inch (25 mm) thick at the handle to about 3/8” (9 mm) at the tip. This strip is then rolled (possibly between heavy metal plates) until reaching a near circular form. The resulting whip is as flexible as whalebone, and very tough.

A plastic version was made for the South African Police Service, and used for riot control.

The sjambok had a variety of uses, with the most obvious being cattle driving. While it may have been synonymous with slave discipline, it was heavily used by the Voortrekkers driving their oxen while migrating from the Cape of Good Hope. Even today, the sjambok is used by herdsmen to drive cattle.

The sjambok is also used today in South Africa by those who mete out discpline imposed by Kangaroo courts.[1]

The sjambok in other areas

The name seems to have originated as cambuk in Indonesia, where it was the name of a wooden rod for punishing slaves. When Malayan slaves were imported to South Africa, the instrument and its name were imported with them, the material was changed to hide, and the name was finally incorporated into the Afrikaans, spelled as sjambok.

The instrument is also known as imvubu (hippopotamus in Zulu), kiboko (hippopotamus in Swahili) and as mnigolo in Malinké.

In the Portuguese African colonies and Congo Free State it was called a chicotte, from the Portuguese word for whip. There it was sometimes rendered even more lacerating by adding nails.

In the Belgian Congo, the instrument was also known as fimbo and was used to force labor 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.

In North Africa, particularly Egypt the whip was called a Kurbash, after Arabic for whip.
The word whip describes two basic types of tools:

A long stick-like device, usually slightly flexible, with a small bit of leather or cord, called a "popper", on the end. Depending on length and flexibility, this type is often called a riding whip, riding crop or "bat".
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Apartheid (meaning separate-ness in Afrikaans, cognate to English apart and -hood ) was a system of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948, and was dismantled in a series of negotiations from 1990 to 1993, culminating in democratic elections in
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Hippopotamus

Species: H. amphibius

Binomial name
Hippopotamus amphibius
Linnaeus, 1758[1]


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Rhinocerotidae
Gray, 1821

Extant Genera

Ceratotherium
Dicerorhinus
Diceros
Rhinoceros
Extinct genera, see text
The rhinoceros (IPA:
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For the symbol of the erect penis, see phallus.
The penis (plural penises, penes) is an external sexual organ of certain biologically male organisms.
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1 foot =
SI units
0 m 0 mm
US customary / Imperial units
0 yd 0 in
A foot (plural: feet or foot;[1] symbol or abbreviation: ft or, sometimes, ′
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1 metre =
SI units
1000 mm 0 cm
US customary / Imperial units
0 ft 0 in
The metre or meter[1](symbol: m) is the fundamental unit of length in the International System of Units (SI).
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1 inch =
SI units
010−3 m 0 mm
US customary / Imperial units
010−3 ft 010−3 yd


An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes,  
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1 millimetre =
SI units
010−3 m 0 cm
US customary / Imperial units
010−3 ft 010−3 in
The millimetre (American spelling: millimeter, symbol mm
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Baleen makes up baleen plates, which are arranged in two parallel rows that look like combs of thick hair; they are attached to the upper jaws of baleen whales. It is composed of keratin, which is the same substance that makes up human hair and nails.
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''For the apartheid-era police force see South African Police.


The South African Police Service is the national police force of the Republic of South Africa.
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Riot control refers to the measures to control a riot or to break up a demonstration. This is typically accomplished by law enforcement officers, utilizing special weapons and tactics that intentionally minimize harm and prevent additional violence.
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Motto
"Bhinneka Tunggal Ika"   (Old Javanese)
"Unity in Diversity"
National ideology: Pancasila[1]
Anthem
Indonesia Raya
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Slavery is a social-economic system under which certain persons — known as slaves — are deprived of personal freedom and compelled to perform labour or services.
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Malayan may refer to:
  • Malays (ethnic group), the ethnic group located primarily in the Malay peninsula, and parts of Sumatra and Borneo.
  • Malay race, a racial category encompassing peoples of South East Asia and sometimes the Pacific Islands.

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Afrikaans}}} 
Official status
Official language of:
The template is . Please use instead.
This usage is deprecated. Please replace it with .
'''The template is deprecated. Please use instead.
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10,659,309 (2001 census)[1]
Regions with significant populations  South Africa
KwaZulu-Natal
Gauteng
Mpumalanga
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Swahili (also called Kiswahili; see below for derivation) is a Bantu language. It is the most widely spoken language of sub-Saharan Africa. Although only 5-10 million people speak it as their native language[1]
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The Malinké or Maninka are a Manding ethnic group (part of Mandé) in Africa.

Approximately 7,750,000 Malinké are scattered throughout West Africa, including:
  • Guinea - 2.8 million
  • Mali - 1.1 million
  • Ivory Coast - 1.0 million
  • Senegal - 1.

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Anthem
"A Portuguesa"


Capital
(and largest city) Lisbon5

Official languages Portuguese1
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Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area.
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colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception.
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The Congo Free State was a corporate state privately controlled by Leopold II, King of the Belgians through a dummy non-governmental organization, the Association Internationale Africaine. Leopold was the sole shareholder and chairman.
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Portuguese}}} 
Writing system: Latin alphabet (Portuguese variant) 
Official status
Official language of: Angola
Brazil
Cape Verde
East Timor
Equatorial Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Macau (PRC)
Mozambique
Portugal
São Tomé and Príncipe
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The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, to the dawn of Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.
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Gumhūriyyat Miṣr al-ʿArabiyyah
Arab Republic of Egypt


Flag Coat of arms
Anthem
Bilady, Bilady, Bilady
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Kurbash or Kourbash (from the Arabic qurbash, a whip; Turkish kırbaç, a whip; and French courbachze), a whip or strap about a yard in length, made of the hide of the hippopotamus or rhinoceros.
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