The name seems to have originated as sambok 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.
A strip of the beast’s hide is cut and carved into a strip 3 to 5 foot long, tapering from about 1 inch thick at the handle to about 3/8” at the tip.
This strip is then rolled 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, and used for riot control.
When a similar instrument is made from another animal’s hide, it is called a litupa.
The instrument is also known as kiboko (the name for the hippopotamus) in Kiswahili and as mnigolo in Malinke. In the Portuguese African colonies it was called a chicote, from a Portuguese word for rod or whip.