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Laurel Aitken

Let me tell you about Sally Brown . . .

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

Laurel Aitken in Chicago at the Subterranean in 1995. Photo by Heather Augustyn

So I love me some Laurel Aitken, and I’m singing along in my car to Sally Brown driving down the highway and my son starts laughing. I’ve belted out these lyrics so many times I don’t hear them anymore, but my son’s fresh ears pick up on perhaps the silliest words to ever grace a ska song–yes, the cukumaka stick. What the heck is a cukumaka stick? I decided I’d find out.

The cukumaka stick is actually a coco macaque stick. It was first used by the Arawaks in battle, even though they were largely a peaceful people. The Arawak, or Taino Indians as they were sometimes called, were one of the native people of the Caribbean. They came to the islands of the Caribbean from Guyana or perhaps from other islands in the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas. They were still a Stone Age people whose tools were primitive and they were an agricultural and fishing people.

The Arawaks used the coco macaque, a heavy solid strong stick or club, as a tool, but they also used it to bludgeon their victims or enemies in combat. In Haiti, the coco macaque stick was called “the Haitian Peace Keeper.” In Cuba, where Laurel Aitken was born, it was called “the Cuban Death Club.” And in New Orleans, the coco macaque stick is called “the Zombie Staff” or “Spirit Stick.”

The coco macaque stick was used in Cuba and Haiti as a weapon and became a part of the cultural vernacular after it was used by the dictatorial regimes in Cuba and Haiti against political activists. During the regime of Papa Doc in Haiti, the coco macaque stick became a symbol associated with the “guaperia,” or his military. According to one article, the “Cocomacaco was the main weapon of the notorious tonton macutes, his the personal body guards.”

The Daily Gleaner on March 1, 1915 wrote of  a coco macaque stick when reporting on a corrupt Haitian dictator who stole money from the country’s coffers. It stated, “He could only find a few thousand pounds to seize, though he sent an army to make the levy: an army strongly armed with superdread-nought cocomacaque sticks.”

Aitken is likely informed by many of these interpretations of the coco macaque stick, but perhaps none as much as the one in his own country which saw the coco macaque stick as a weapon associated with slavery. On the Cuban sugar plantations, slave owners beat their slaves with a coco macaque stick. The weapon later became a “tool of correction” used by men on women, and there was a Cuban proverb that said that wives should be “corrected with cocomacaco hard,” which may also shed light on why, when Laurel Aitken was once asked about this lyric, he hinted at a sexual connotation, as was common in the calypso, mento, and subsequent musical traditions–just think of Jackie Opel’s “Push Wood” for an example with a similar object–wood–but there are dozens if not hundreds of others with different objects–shepherd rods, needles, etc.

The coco macaque stick also had a life all its own. The Taino Indians and Haitians who practiced Voodou believed that the coco macaque stick walked by itself. The owner could send the coco macaque stick to run errands or dirty work, and if the coco macaque stick hit someone on the head, they would then be dead by morning.

Here is some information I found in an article on voodoo: “Coco macaque is what many refer to as a very real magical Haitian vodou implement or black magicians helping tool. Made of Haitian Coco-macaque palm wood or what ever wood one has at hand it is basically just simple thick 1 to 2 inch wooden cane, which is supposed to be possessing one of many magical powers, The strangest one is that to be able to stand up and walk on its own. Though it’s appearance of walking is described more like a hopping or bouncing action. This Voodoo Magic walking stick is not bound by gravity and is said to bounce off of houses and homes and even roofs as it travels to it’s commanded destination. Sometimes many people might refer to them as Voodoo Zombie Canes and swear that by all known accounts and means that they or it is possessed by the spirits of the dead. By all old Haitian accounts many will tell you that it is a simple design or sometimes crudely hand carved by a voodoo black magic priest using what ever found wood is available to them at the time. And it is a cursed or controlled by specific spirit that causes the walking stick to appear to move all by itself.”

Here are the lyrics to that classic Laurel Aitken tune, Sally Brown:

She boogey, she boogey, she boogey down the alley
Let me tell you about Sally Brown
Sally Brown is a girl in town
She don’t mess around
Let me tell you about Sally Brown
Sally Brown is a slick chick.
She hits you with a cukumaka stick
Cukukukukumaka stick
Hits you with a Cukumaka stick

Heather Augustyn

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SONGBIRDS: PIONEERING WOMEN IN JAMAICAN MUSIC. BY HEATHER AUGUSTYN

SONGBIRDS: PIONEERING WOMEN IN JAMAICAN MUSIC

BY HEATHER AUGUSTYN RELEASED

CHESTERTON, IND.—Songbirds: Pioneering Women in Jamaican Music by Heather Augustyn has been published by Half Pint Press and is now available. The book is a comprehensive look at Jamaican vocalists, instrumentalists, record producers, dancers, wives, mothers, and deejays who helped to shape the course of Jamaican music on the island and worldwide. Songbirds: Pioneering Women in Jamaican Music is the fourth book from Augustyn on Jamaican music and culture.

The book features dozens of interviews with women who found a way share their talent in a culture and industry that was marked by brazen displays of masculinity. They endured harassment and received little or no pay to perform as backup or alongside or in front of the male musicians. They sacrificed family and home for a life in the spotlight, or they brought their babies with them on the road. They took over the studio and made it their own, or they suffered unimaginable violence, even murder. They changed the course of music all over the world. The book also features over 100 exclusive photographs and memorabilia that supplements personal narratives and archival material.

Heather Augustyn spent two years researching and talking to such women as Millie Small of “My Boy Lollipop” fame who rarely grants interviews, and she obtained photographs from her personal photo album. Others include Enid Cumberland of Keith & Enid who is now in her mid-80s; Janet Enright, the country’s first female guitarist who performed jazz in the 1950s; Marcia Griffiths of the I-Threes, Bob Marley’s backup singers, and vocalist for the Electric Slide, the staple of every wedding reception; members of the first all-girl ska band, the Carnations, featuring the parents of Tessanne Chin, winner of The Voice; Doreen Shaffer of the Skatalites; Patsy Todd of Derrick & Patsy and Stranger & Patsy; Althea & Donna, and dozens of others.

Augustyn is also author of Don Drummond: The Genius and Tragedy of the World’s Greatest Trombonist, McFarland 2013; Ska: An Oral History, McFarland 2010; and Ska: The Rhythm of Liberation, Scarecrow Press 2013. She is a correspondent for The Times of Northwest Indiana and an adjunct professor at Purdue University’s North Calumet campus. She lives with her husband and two boys in Chesterton, Indiana. Songbirds Pioneering Women in Jamaican Music is available at Here and amazon.com.

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Skinhead footwear survey, London school of fashion

Dear Symond,

Thank you for accepting my request into the Skinhead Classics Group. I’m currently studying footwear design in my final year at London College of Fashion and am doing my final major project on the evolution of the rude boy and the skinhead subculture. I am looking in to consumers and specifically members or admirers of the skinhead subculture. Would it be okay to post a survey to gain insight towards consumer habits and motivations to help with my degree?
Thank you for your time.
Kind regards,Eleanor Mills

Thankyou for showing an interest in the skinhead subculture, i am sure people will be pleased to help

Click here to take part in the survey 

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Skinhead attacked in Ramsgate UK

Colin Harvey aged 47 was attacked on his way home, late Friday night/Saturday morning 1am  1st November 2014

All he knows of The attackers, was a group late teens about 5 or 6 of them, Chatham Court, Station Approach road, Ramsgate. 

Sherina ‘Rena’ Burke says.  One lad was about 6.2 the others about 5.6 /5.7 about 1am yesterday morning
Don’t know if, or who  who’s dealing with it at the Police station, as we left about midday so he could get cleaned up and have a sleep. Not even sure he was going to proceed with dealing with the old bill !
Oh and his wallet was missing too.

Locals we think, but Colin didn’t recognise any of them. The poor neighbour phoned the police, but was too frightened to open the door as she was elderly, I’m sure some one will find out something as they are bound to brag to the wrong person !! Colin’s spirits remained high, he had us all laughing, not sure if I’d have been so upbeat, I’m glad they didn’t knock that out of him. What a trooper !

This attack happened feet from his door 6 youths (late teens) were sat on the steps leading to his door he asked them to move and they attacked like a pack of animals ..he has remained in good spirits and still has his sense of humour, even after cracked ribs, Broken nose, fractured jaw, missing teeth, two black eyes and a large shoe print bruise across his face x
Been a skinhead since his teens not that it makes a difference !!

Skinhead for Life

Colin is well liked, born and lived his whole life here, has had the girls arriving in droves yesterday with beer baccy soup etc. Colin is a regular attender of skinhead events, and is a big ska and oi fan, one of the crowd. He was wearing one of our Great Skinhead Reunion Shirts, So this is an attack on all of us. Do your bit for a brother

Anyone in the area, can you please post this around. The lads are probably boasting, and could be local. 

Ramsgate , is situated on the South East coast of England in Kent, quite a run down area, and is mainly recognised as a major ferry port for Europe. A close knit local community, but does attract alot of transient people. If you saw, or know anything, lets help to get justice for Colin.

If you have any info, please let us know,or contact  Kent police on 101