In "No Woman No Cry," Bob Marley sings about sitting in the government yard in Trenchtown, lighting a fire, and making cornmeal porridge. What sort of place was that?
Trench Town is a neighbourhood in St. Anne Parish, adjoining Western Kingston. In the 1930s and 1940s it grew as a shantytown as migrants from the countryside made their way to the city in search of work and other opportunities. The "government yard" was a public housing project, built in the 1950s, where Bob Marley lived as a teenager with his mother.
You might want look at the site of the Trench Town Culture Yard Museum for details on the history of the neighbourhood: http://www.trenchtowncultureyard.com/history/