Review
Publication date : Monday, September 20th 2010 - 23 767 views Trench Town: between legend and reality
Trench Town: between legend and reality
1971. The title Trench Town Rock explodes in listeners' ears. Bob Marley puts his neighbourhood, and with it Jamaica, on the world map. Thirty years after the singer's death, Trench Town's fame remains intact.
 "It's Kingston 12!", repeats Bob Marley in Trench Town Rock. The neighbourhood has since become a myth and has outlived the reggae legend. The tributes the singer paid to his muse still echo on airwaves around the world. Trench Town, Natty Dread or No Woman no Cry... While Kingston is crumbling under violence and is no more than a stopover for tourists, Trench Town continues to attract the curious. A feat for a ghetto next to a city centre that is strictly off-limits. "It's our Hollywood", the residents boast. Here there are no giant letters on the corrugated-iron roofs, but legends who have made this place an object of fascination.
"Trench Town remains in people's minds the reference in music, that's undeniable", admits Prince Alla, 60, one of the last pillars of the Marley era. "I remember the time when Bob and his musicians came to the beach to sing. And we followed them, all drawn by that mystical energy." In this veritable creative nest, the fourteen streets are walked like the wall of a record company hung with gold discs. Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, Wailing Souls, Delroy Wilson, Joe Higgs, Adina Edwards...
First street and first stop for tourists. They come by the hundreds every month to the Culture Yard. Better known as the "Government Yard", it is the place where Bob Marley grew up, and which he remembers in No Woman No Cry ("Said I remember when we used to sit, in the Government Yard in Trenchtown"). Guides let you relive the daily life of the man who was then just Robert Nesta Marley. A single bed, which he promises to share in Is this love?, and a mini-van, turned into a playground for bored children.
The bravest then defy the bad reputation of this neighbourhood in west Kingston to stroll through the streets. Thirty years after the death of its ambassador, Trench Town disarms you. An open-air sewer that cuts the neighbourhood in two (the gully), young people waiting without much hope, and children, whose parents cannot pay the school fees, playing outside.
If Trench Town does not escape the fate of all the island's ghettos, its fame makes it a privileged one. The neighbourhood is famous and its 60,000 or so residents benefit from it. Now rid of the violence that had characterised it for over thirty years, Trench Town can now enjoy its heritage and welcome investors wishing to help ghetto youth. "Trench Town has seen the fastest decline in murders in Jamaica", confirms Macintosh, a policeman on Seventh Street. Between 2006 and 2009, the number of murders fell from 165 to 53. Fame and a return to calm are fostering community projects along Collie Smith Drive, the main avenue that runs beside the famous gully.
 Among these investors is Doctor Henley Morgan, nicknamed the "Don" for the help he gives the population. "Why here? Trench Town put Jamaica on the map, that's why I decided to invest in this neighbourhood", he explains. "Trench Town is a brand in itself. A label on a par with Jamaica", says Doctor Henley Morgan.
With his qualifications and his address book, this Montego Bay native decided in 2006 to give a helping hand to youth left to fend for themselves. "If you can save Trench Town, you can save Jamaica", he hammers home to the young people who come to see him for advice, a job, a micro-loan or a study grant. For everyone it is vital help, in a place where unemployment exceeds 60% (against 11% for the whole country).
"In Trench Town, as in any other ghetto, the government does not help. It is from Panama, Germany or the United States that a few lovers of the neighbourhood come and drop their bags. No help from the state", they all assure us. "I thought that by showing them our results, they would decide to lend us a hand, but nothing", regrets Doctor Morgan. "Even employers join in, because they are too afraid of having to deal with one of the neighbourhood's godfathers", he laments.
"From nursery school, we are told that the sky is the only limit", says Malica, 27. Since finishing high school, she has done odd jobs but has never been able to find stable employment. "For us, the limit is the number 12 (code for Trench Town, ed.)."
Report written by Ratiba Hamzaoui
Tags : Bunny Wailer (46)
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