Etymology

Afrikaans, from the Javanese cambuk, and as borrowed in Malay: modern Indonesian and Malaysian. Originally spelt in the colonial Dutch transliteration tscamboek. Term imported by VOC officials, Dutch merchants, the Maardijkers (Maluku (Moluccan) freemen and burghers); and Inlanders: Javanese and other modern Indonesian slaves and political exiles expelled to Dutch South Africa.

Noun

1. A stout whip, especially made of rhinoceros or hippopotamus hide.

   • 1963: Foppl stood holding a sjambok or cattle whip of giraffe hide, tapping the handle against his leg in a steady, syncopated figure. — Thomas Pynchon, V.
   • 1989: If dialogue is ever to have a chance, South Africans must find a way to turn away from violence in all its forms — the brutal violence of the sjambok — United States Policy Toward South Africa: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on African Affairs by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. Subcommittee on African Affairs: p.333
   • 2006 Police arrested almost 40 locals yesterday after a crowd took part in illegal marches and refused to disperse. The locals were armed with sticks, sjamboks and other weapons. - Weekend Argus May 13/14 2006 p.1.

"Then as now, the sjambok: a hippopotamus hide wide whip was the symbol of the white baasskap in South Africa. Sometimes the whip was we idled by servants of the Fiscaal or the district magistrates, the so-called Caffers. A master could send his slave to the Caffers to be punished at whim, for instance if his peddling activities on the stfreets of Cape Town had not been making enough." (Ross: 1983, 34).

Verb

1. To whip with a sjambok; to horsewhip.