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sjambok
EntityQ155451· pop 11· linked from 104 articles

The sjambok (), 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.

Key facts

Weapon.name
Sjambok
Weapon.image
295px
Weapon.caption
A plastic sjambok used by South African police
Weapon.origin
Dutch Cape Colony (now part of South Africa)
Weapon.type
Whip

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Subclass of
knout
Country of origin
South Africa
Material used
Nile hippopotamus
Image
Sjambok (plastic).jpg
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~4 min read

Encyclopedic overview

6 sections
Contents
  • Use by police
  • South Africa
  • United Kingdom
  • Other types
  • In popular culture
  • References

The sjambok (), 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 long, tapering from about thick at the handle to about 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.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “sjambok” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (2)