quote:

Originally posted by PWS:
The word sjambok... It reminds me of one of those incidents that, although subtle, really enlighten you on the matter of things.

I was hunting out of Russ Broom's Songo camp in the spring of 2002. One afternoon we returned for lunch and there was an unassuming military vehicle and a band of some serious looking fellows sporting some serious looking armament milling about the main yard. They were sporting dark blue fatigues and despite the uniforms, they were definately not road block cops. The PH explained that there had been an elephant carcass discovered nearby and the blue shirts were in the area to see what they could find. In the meantime, they used Songo for a base of operations.

We didn't see them again for three or four days and I'd forgotten about thier presence.

At the next encounter, again at midday, they were in camp and most of the staff was jovially milling around and the serious air was long gone. I wandered over to see what was going on and notice two very sorry looking individuals sitting in the dirt, tethered at the wrist and ankles. The blue shirts were taking care of something in their vehicle and the PH wandered over to me. I couldn't help but notice the word "sjambok" repeated in the banter of the camp staff. I knew that word and yet had no clue why everyone was goofing around the two fellows in the dirt saying "whip" "whip" "whip" . So I asked the PH what was being said.

He shrugged and told me that the poachers had been caught sleeping around thier fire and out of reach of the old .303 they'd used for the kill. The PH said they were lucky they weren't near the rifle but he then back tracked and said perhaps they would have been better off to have put up a "fight" and been killed outright. He explained how they were now looking at a long time in jail and despite the impossibility of the situation, they were still responsible for paying a trophy fee commensurate of the cow they'd poached. The boys in the camp staff all thought the predicament of the two in the dirt was quite good fun, especially since the blueshirts started the poachers punishment by stringing them up by their wrists that night and whipping the #@%&^$ out of them, "chatter, chatter, sjambok, chatter, tee hee hee..."