The poem deals with the large scale emigration of West Indian males to work abroad in the late 19th to early 20th century and the impact on the women left behind. It focuses on Esmie who was courted by a man who promised to do well abroad and send money. However, after 15 years of no contact or support, he returns as a wealthy "gentleman" and ignores her. The emigration of these men represented the hopes and dreams of the families, but often resulted in betrayal and rejection for the women who were left to struggle alone. Esmie's realization that she has created a stable home allows her to find clarity and closure.

1. TRAVELER'S TALES
ALL CLEAR, 1928
BY OLIVE SENIOR
Presented by Rishika Ramkay
Presented by Rishika Ramkay

2. All Clear, 1928
I was beating chaklata when someone
Came shouting: A stranger man come!
I dropped everything. Same way
In my sampata, my house dress,
My everyday head-tie, I rushed to
the square wondering: could it be?

3. How many gathered there so long
After our men disappeared into
The black water dividing us from
Puerto Limon, Havana, Colon
Knew it was he? Not his sons lost
To a father fifteen years gone.
There he was. Leather-booted and
Spurred, sitting high on a fine horse

4. Never spoke a word. This Spanish
Grandee sat on his horse and
Looked at us. Looked through us.
Never could lump poverty. Used
To say: Esmie, when I strike it rich
In foreign what a fine gentleman
I’ll be. And you with your clear
Complexion will sit beside me,

5. Your hands stilled from work
Like silk again (silk of my skin
My only dowry!) Ashamed now of my
Darkened complexion, my work-blackened
Hands, my greying hair, a loosening
Of my pride (three sons with Mr Hall
The carpenter who took me in) I
Lowered my eyes and tried to hide

6. I needn’t have bothered. He looked
So troubled, as if he’d lost his way.
And suddenly, with nothing said,
He wheeled his horse and fled.
And ever after we talked of the
Wonder of it. The stranger never
Spoke to anyone. Forgotten the young
Man who left home with a good white

7. Shirt (stitched by these hands) and
A borrowed black serge suit ( which
The owner never recovered), a heng-pon-me
With four days ration of roasted salt fish,
Johnny cakes, dokunu and cerasee for tea
To tide him over to the SS Atrato
Lying in wait in Kingston Harbour.
All, all the men went with our dreams,

8. Our hopes, our prayers. And he
With a guinea from Mass Dolphy
The schoolteacher who said that boy
Had so much ambition he was bound
To go far. And he had. Gathering
To himself worlds of experience
Which allowed him to ride over us
With a clear conscience. I never

9. Told anyone. For I would have had
To tell his children why he hadn’t
Sent money for bread, why his fine
Leather boots, why is saddle,
His grey mare, his three-piece suit,
His bowler hat, his diamond tie-pin,
His fine manicured hands, his barbered
Hair, his supercilious air. Never

10. Was a more finely cut gentleman
seen in our square. And I trembled
In anger and shame fro the black limbo
Into which my life had fallen
All these years till my hands touched
The coarse heads of my young sons
Recalling me to a snug house clad
With love. And I cried then, because

11. Till he came back I had not known
My life was rooted. Years later
I learned that his fine gentlemanly air,
His polished boots, manners, and Ecuador
Gold bought him a very young girl of very
Good family in Kingston. And they wed.
He, with a clear conscience.
She, with a clear complexion.

12.  Summary 
 The poem deals with the large scale emigration
of West Indian males to work on the Panama
Canal and elsewhere in Latin America in the
19th century to early 20th century and the
women they left behind.

13.  The Title “All Clear” 
 An all-clear is a term used by civil defense
or military authorities to inform others
that an imminent physical danger has
passed. This typically will end an alert or
warning status that was previously
issued.

14.  permission to proceed because obstacles
have been removed.
 In the poem it is a metaphor-clear
complexion, clear conscience, free to move
on

15.  Meanings of Phrases 
 “Beating chaklata”
- parched cocoa pods are pounded in a mortar as
part of the process of making chocolate for tea

16.  “Same way in my sampata…”
- sandals made of old car tyres; any old shoe –
also sampat, zapat. From Spanish “zapata”.

17.  “Heng-pon-me”
- knapsack made of thatch used by farmers and
travellers.

18.  “Johnny cakes, dokunu, cerasee”
- fried dumpling
- pudding wrapped in banana leaf and boiled

19.  - tea made from a bitter plant – all foods carried
by poor travellers in the days before “fast foods”.

20.  “The SS Atrato”
- SS Atrato was a 3,184 tons iron built paddle
steamer built by Messrs Caird & Co of Greenock,
in 1853 for the Royal Mail Steam Packet
Company. She ran on the South American service
for 17 years.

21. - She was sold to John Morrison & Co London and
in 1870 converted into a single-screw vessel with
compound engines and three double-ended boilers.
- She has been listed as the largest passenger ship
from 1853 to 1858.

22.  “Guinea”
- British gold coin that was formerly used
in the British West Indies; then worth
twenty-one shillings.

23.  All Clear, 1928 critically examine the repercussions
of history on the lives and place of women in
society.
 Esmie is a victim of the repercussions of history in
Jamaica.
 The word “limbo” is used to indicate a life lived in
suspension (gone for fifteen years and came back as
a Grandee)
 She hoped and had much fate he would return

24.  “All, all the men…prayers”
indicates the hope and fate the women had for
them, the legitimate expectations of the men who
went off in search of a better life for them and
their families.
 Repetition of “clear conscience” is evidence of how
ungrateful the men were. Additionally, this is seen
through the man neglecting his family while
adorned himself. (“For I would have had To tell
his children …his supercilious air.”)

25.  Esmie’s hopes all went to a younger more beautiful
Kingston girl.
 Senior’s autobiographical content – “gold bought
him a very young girl of very good family in
Kingston. And they wed. He, with a clear
conscience. She, with a clear complexion.”
 Class distinctions where emphasis is placed on
“clear complexion” – social mobility difference of
the persona being mixed and his new wife is not
she is fair.

26.  In black society, the colour of one’s skin had he
ability to disenfranchise or boost a person.
 Coming to the end of the poem Esmie becomes
enlightened and things ‘clear up’ for her, her life is
liberated limbo to being “All Clear” she is finally
able to focus on things more sharply.
 15 years is sufficient time for her and him to move
on. He becomes a grandee or great man and is
literally above everyone, on a horse.
 He opened up to her his dreams and ambition – he
married a woman of clear complexion (social
mobility)

27.  Her clear skin is one of the main reasons he married
her – aftermath of slavery and the emphasis on
colour in relation to class is clearly seen in this
scenario.
 She was forced to turn to another man in a kind of
business agreement to support herself. Formality of
the subject – Mr. Hall and she mentions his
profession as a carpenter
 However this was no romantic alliance

28.  She is ashamed of her situation with Mr. Hall,
what her life has come to etc.
 She in end realizes that she has no reason to be
ashamed and when he leaves she gets the bravery
to reminisce some more – about how humble his
beginnings where (his borrowed suit, how she took
care of him)
 Everyone supported him and the reader hears her
bitterness as he never sent any money, not even for
bread.

29.  He managed to move on yet she did not have that
strength and financial security to stand on her
own, she realizes that she has been depending on
these men.
 In the end these things are clarified for her in the
end and she takes this as a signal for change
 Turning point where the horse turns around, her
speech changes or turns around as well as her mind
set.

30.  Limbo is used in religious mythology - the soul is
unsure of whether it will ascend to heaven or
descend to hell. It signifies a place of ambiguity
and uncertainty for the persona. Additionally it is
also a place where on has no control over and her
past decisions have put her in such a state. Thus
the poem not only discusses clear complexion but
clear of obstacles as well.
 “Black Limbo” – she describes the heads of her
sons are described as coarse, she is reminded of how
comfortable her life is now. “snug house clad with
love”. Her tears are her release

31.  She looks back and realizes that what she has now
is her reality and this is not something to be
ashamed of
 Sarcasm “very young, very good girl in Kingston”
 He moves on with a clear conscience and her with
her clear complexion – she now has the knowledge
to move on with her life.

32.  Structure 
 Couplets (run on lines) : 2 lines each , in narrative
style, use of 1st person narrator
 Contributes to meaning in the poem to examine the
relationship of man and woman
 39 (odd number) uneven
 “wed” line ends abruptly
 Run on lines linked to the feeling of being in limbo,
uncertainty
Also dependent on their marriage “bread”

33. Narrative Perspective
 “I didn’t find my own writer’s voice until I
allowed my characters to speak on their own
voices. Speakers do not arrive empty-handed.
They bring entire worlds with them” – Olove
Senior
 1st person narrator – Esmie reveals her
internalized obsession with complexion which
feeds her perception of loss, both of social standing
and self – esteem “the black limbo into which life
had fallen”

34. Repetition 
 “clear” used to reiterate or give a sense of finality to
the poem. It shows the cycle of migration. The persona
shows that not only this is her story but the story of
many.

35.  Irony 
 “fine gentleman” lacks gentleman like
qualities, just maintains an appearance

36. themes
 Betrayal
 Rejection
 Disillusionment to Enlightenment
 Migration
 Racism
 Effects of slavery/Colonial History
 Gender roles
 Relationships (male/female, parent/child)
 Class

37.  Characterisation 
 Esmie – hard working, industrious,
hopeful
 The stranger – selfish, hypocritical
(issue of the nature of gentleman:
appearance against reality), always
ambitious

38. Intertextuality
 Intertexuality (def) – the way in which a text mirrors
another text in the process of producing meaning.
 “All Clear” – mythical figure, the ColÓn man (a
Jamaican figure who had gone to work in the Panama
Canal and returns home wealthy and prospersous)
refers to a Jamaican understanding of economic
centrifugal forces that propelled Esmie’s lover to
migrate.
 Recruiters of Jamaican labourers would manipulate
this myth in advertising campaigns
 This figure was also later on immortalized in the
Jamaican folk song of the same name

39.  Fin 