Roots Archives Forum

Trench Town, west Kingston, Kingston 12.

Divided between REMA (from 1st Street to 7th Street) and ARNETT GARDENS, alias CONCRETE JUNGLE (from 7th Street to 14th Street).

Rema is JLP (affiliated to the political party of the Jamaica Labour Party) - that's where Marley comes from, where he wrote No Woman No Cry. In " Natty Dread", you'll notice that he walks through Trench Town but stops at 7th street which is the frontier with CONCRETE JUNGLE, a PNP stronghole (from the People's National Party) where Tony Welch used to rule (under the PNP ministre ANTHONY SPAULDING). That was - and still is - a terrible war zone in Kingston.

sorry, Greory's tune is Kingston 14, of course. 13 being GREENWICH FARM (where bunny lee, the soul syndicate or freedom sounds come from).

@Jolong

Aaah nice info! I was actually wondering about Jungle and Rema since I've heard them mentioned in several tunes. I figured they were locations of some sort but never knew anything about them.

just to add to the information:
rema is officially called wilton gardens.

I think it would be interesting to see an annotated map with some of these locations and some of the stories involved. Especially a musical walk like the Marley one mentioned above...

it means the code area for the ghetto of trenchtown who is in kingston. its funny to think that the number 12 is a simbolic number in the bible: 12 tribes, 12 apostles, 12 sons, 12 stars etc. bob marley lived in trenchtown and enter like member in the rastafari sect called "12 tribes of israel" by 1976. thats why he took the name of joseph for the month of his birthday and the son of jacob. the blessing of joseph is in the rastaman vibration album.

The french magazine Natty Dread has some great articles about various locations in Kingston and all over Jamaica, with great pics and information about artists, sound systems and venues in the area. They need to compile it, make an english version for international use and sell it as a reggae tourist guide to Jamaica.

"NO MORE WAR" by PRINCE FAR I is a great song about REMA and JUNGLE.

"How good and how pleasant is is for a Rema man can go to Jungle
and Jungle man can go to Rema"

" When you see champion ya don't kill him you raise him"

All roots fans know Jungle, Rema, Tivoli, in loads of great roots songs....

Yes, lots of songs mention areas of Jamaica.
9 Miles, Half Way Tree, Greenbay....