1. Introduction

1.1 Winsome Pinnock’s Leave Taking: Plot Summary

Pinnock’s Leave Taking is set during the 1980s in the UK. It is a one-act play where most of the eight scenes center around the family members of the protagonist Enid, a Jamaican immigrant in her forties. She is a single mother with two teenage girls Del and Viv. Other characters like the obeah woman Mai and the family friend Brod play vital roles in the development of the events and in accentuating the thematic depth of the play. Through the dialogues between the protagonist and the family members, the story of immigration is dexterously unfolded. Enid has fled from her home country Jamaica to the UK, along with her husband, in order to find better living conditions. However, in the exile, the couple encounters severe economic circumstances along with racial discrimination. These difficulties culminate in the husband running away from the family leaving the mother to raise two little girls alone.

Brod’s story, a friend to the family, is another bitter account of a Jamaican immigrant in the UK. Brod has failed to achieve the dreams he had once of living prosperously in the UK. He is drunk, penniless, and often mistreated by the British authority as a foreigner, though he has been living in the UK for many years. He constantly complains about the cruel racial discrimination he faces both from the official employees in his city and from the teenage white boys.

In this play, Pinnock underlines the significance of maintaining one’s own roots and culture through the character of Mai, the Jamaican obeah woman. Mai’s unique talent for foreseeing events and predicting the future of people while reading their palms is a strong reference to the cultural traditions of Jamaica and the need to preserve them.

The new generation represented by Del and Viv stands to signify two main directions in dealing with the diaspora country, the UK. Del is often rageful and dissatisfied with the poor living conditions they are enduring. Racism seems to be the other main cause behind her continuous furry and the loss of her job. After a fierce fight with her mother, Del leaves the house to live with Mai learning the craft of fortunetelling and waiting for her first baby to arrive, a baby whose father remains unknown to the end of the play.

As for Viv, she appears as a dedicated intelligent young girl who is scoring high grades at the high school. Enid is extremely joyful as she announces that her sacrifices for the family are not in vain since Viv is preparing to go to university with the prospect of a bright future ahead.

1.2 Methodological Framework

Primarily, it is relevant to mention that the data gathered in this article consists of textual analysis concentrating on character development, dialogue, and thematic elements of this play. A manual search was utilized while composing this study to collect data from academic journals and books. The methodological framework utilized in this article encompasses fundamental concepts and notions from significant postcolonial theorists, such as Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, and Homi Bhabha.

The Palestinian American Edward Said is one of the most influential postcolonial theorists and literary critics in the discipline of postcolonial studies. In Orientalism (1978), Said explicitly elucidates that European writers and explorers affirm that the natives of the colonies are different from the civilized European colonizers, they are backward and primitive. This understanding of the natives enhances the feeling of superiority, on the part of the Western colonizers, and breeds racism and discrimination. Said further elaborates, that the destructive impacts of colonialism do not vanish with the departure of the colonial power from the countries they formerly colonized. On the contrary, these countries seem to be wallowing in destructive economic and social conditions even after liberation. The core reason behind this deterioration, according to Said, is the colonial occupation that has drained the colonized countries of their resourceful materials. In his other book Culture and Imperialism (1993), Said argues that the essence of imperialism rests on colonizing other lands and hegemonizing the indigenous nations to the power and supremacy of the invader. In this manner, they deny the natives of their rights, and access to their natural resources and even their humanity.

The French Afro-Caribbean philosopher Frantz Fanon is one of the prominent postcolonial theorists. Fanon, in Black Skin White Masks (1952), skillfully addresses the experience of colonized people, particularly black people, in the colonies. He adroitly clarifies that colonization leads the black natives to breed a deep sense of inferiority owing to their skin color. In consequence, they tend to adopt the language, culture, and attitude of colonizers in order to ease that sense of inferiority. Fanon stresses the dehumanizing effects of racism on the black people which creates a bitter sense of alienation.

In The Location of Culture (1994), Homi Bhabha clarifies that identity is complex, particularly in a postcolonial context. People, who have been impacted by colonial rules, often face identity problems. Bhabha’s concept of hybrid identity explains the formation of new identities arising from the interaction of different cultures. Hybridization emerges within the "in-between" space, where cultures blend and influence one another. In this space, individuals are shaped by multiple cultural forces, leading to the creation of dynamic, rather than homogeneous, identities. Consequently, individuals grapple with a sense of belonging, often feeling disconnected from their original and adopted cultural frameworks.

2. Shattering the Fallacy of the “Dream Land” Britain in Winsome Pinnock’s Leave Taking

The play Leave Taking, by the British playwright Winsome Pinnock, is considered one of the playwright's prominent dramatic texts as it adroitly depicts the experiences of the Black immigrants, particularly Jamaicans, in the UK during the 1980s. Deirdre Osborne (1962-) describes Pinnock as “the godmother of black British playwrights” (2006, p. 61). Since she aptly explores their experiences across generations. In this play, the female characters are torn up between adhering to the traditions of their homeland and, on the other side, adapting themselves to the British customs and norms. According to Öğünç (2018), "the play contributes to the cultural identity of migration and displacement shared by these three generations of women" (p.24). There are vivid and rich stories of Mai, the obeah woman, Enid, the mother, Del and Viv, the two daughters, and the family friend Brod. These detailed and lucid accounts emphatically indicate the challenges the immigrants encounter in adapting to a new culture while, simultaneously, preserving their own cultural roots.

The title of the play has two levels of suggestive references. The first carries the connotation of “departing” from one’s home, language, and culture. Whereas the second meaning is in reference to the Jamaican rituals of bidding farewell to a dying person (Mohamed, 2019). The first connotation of the title refers to the first generation of immigrants, Enid, Brod, and Mai. They have been living in the exile for many years, but they still speak their mother language and assiduously practice the traditions of their homeland, Jamaica. The title also implies that the new generation is being cut off from their own roots and ties to their homeland. For this reason, the language, culture, and tradition of the motherland are no longer vivid or alive. Therefore, the title of the play might refer to the physical and emotional departure that the characters constantly live through after leaving their own homeland.

In Leave Taking, Pinnock skillfully pictures a strong-willed protagonist Enid who relentlessly tries to provide decent living and educational opportunities to her two daughters Del and Viv. Brod and Mai are two dynamic characters whose roles are to accentuate significant themes in this play ,such as poverty, racism, and the need to preserve one’s culture and traditions.

The play dexterously portrays the characters' severe financial difficulties, their feeling of alienation while encountering fierce racial attacks, and their ceaseless efforts to preserve their cultural traditions. Sherbini et al. (2022) argue that "Pinnock figures out her characters from a female point of view as she places them in a new environment to express themes of diaspora, alienation, displacement, and otherness" (p. 5). This assumption encapsulates the core challenges the characters relentlessly encounter as they grapple with economic difficulties and racial discrimination.

In the introduction of Leave Taking, Pinnock clarifies the social, financial, and psychological troubles faced by the immigrants who are caught between two worlds. The first world is the diaspora world of the UK, the new country they immigrated to, whereas, the second world is related to the mother country, Jamaica, from which they ran away. Jessica Hagen-Zanker (2008) elucidates that there are a wide range of reasons that compel people to leave their own home countries, among which are the impoverished living conditions and the dream of a better life in the exile. Hagen-Zanker contends that immigration “is driven by the promise of better life conditions, including employment opportunities and economic stability” (p. 5). This key idea is evidently expressed in the dialogues between Enid and Mai, in an early scene in the play. Enid discloses to Mai her financial burdens as her family members, at home, constantly ask her to send them money:

I do my best, but every week me sister send another letter a beg me for this and a beg me for that. Is not as if I don't write tell her how things hard over her. She must think I'm living like a millionaire (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.1.148-50).

In this quote, it is evident that Enid’s sister frequently sends telegrams asking for more money assuming that Enid is living a well-to-do lifestyle. The attitude of Enid’s sister elucidates the false assumption she has about life in Britain and highlights the pressures imposed on the immigrants to provide for their families both in the diaspora and at home (Öğünç, 2018).

In another scene, Enid reveals to Mai her suspicion about her sister’s frequent demands for money. She often doubts that the money she sends might be going to the sister and her family, rather than to the doctor who is treating Enid’s mother at home, as the sister claims:

A month ago me sister send me this letter say me mother sick, need money for doctor. The woman so lie. I don't know whether to believe her or not. How I know she nah want the money for herself? (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.1. 131-136).

Here, Enid explicitly expresses her deep skepticism about the money issue, she is hesitant to send more money as she doubts the validity of her sister’s claims.

Britain being the land of dreams to the impoverished people living in poor countries like Jamaica is a recurrent theme in the dialogues of the characters in this play. To Viv, Enid narrates the harsh living conditions in Jamaica and how she and her husband, Viv’s father, used to dream of traveling to London:

Every night we douse rags in petrol, light them up for torches then run up Peggy Hill. We sit by we self and plan through the night. We going to be big shots in London. …Exactly a year after him leave I get a airmail letter with a ticket in it. He save every single penny he work to buy that ticket (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.4.76-86).

In the previous quote, Enid describes the difficult financial conditions she and her husband were living through in their home country before coming to the UK . Using rags to make torches signifies the extent of their poverty. Though the husband managed to come to the UK, it took him an entire year to save enough money for his wife’s ticket to join him. Mahmud and Mohammed (2022) comment on the challenging living circumstances of Enid and other characters in both Jamaica and Britain describing Enid as “a victim of poverty in her homeland … she escaped to England with the anticipation of leading a lavish lifestyle” (p.6). This explanation highlights the shattered idealized image of Britain being thought of as the land of prosperity and welfare by the poor natives of Jamaica. The cruel financial and social reality in the exile is agonized by Enid who is now a single mother for her husband has left her. Constantly, the mother struggles with varying hardships in order to raise two daughters and to provide them with decent living conditions. She sharply criticizes the false belief that people, in their home country, have about those who are abroad “They don't imagine how we live over here” (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.3. 127-128).

It is worth highlighting that the immigrants’ feeling of disillusionment as they encounter economic, social, and racial challenges in the exile is frequently illustrated in the literary texts of numerous immigrant writers such as the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977- ). In Americanah (2013), the novel adeptly portrays the financial difficulties as well as the racial cruelty of the American society encountered by a young female protagonist. The text is an exploration of the theme of disillusionment bitterly lived through by the protagonist as she views her stifling financial and social conditions in the USA, the country where she previously thought of as the land of dreams (Neigh et al., 2023). Even the ghettos, the immigrants, usually stand as an emphatic symbol for their new harsh reality in the exile as they are in many cases extremely poor and live in shabby neighborhoods. This stands in sharp contrast with their previous expectations, when they were in their homeland, about finding better living conditions abroad.

In a different scene, Pinnock aptly clarifies the reason behind the extreme poverty in Jamaica, a former British colony. In a dialogue between Enid and Brod, the mother is thrilled to see the high grades of her daughter. She has high expectations and hopes that those grades will hopefully get her daughter into a good college. Brod succinctly states the reason behind the inability of many young and talented people, in their home country, to go to college:

ENID. All 'A's. My daughter going to university. How many a my sister children back home going to university?

BROD. And you know why they ain't going to university? Because they too poor. An' why they poor? Because a colonialism. Imperialism. Vampirism. They suck the blood outta the island, suck them dry (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.2. 139-145).

In this dialogue, Brod bitterly reflects on the devastating impacts of colonization on Jamaica which drained the country of its resources. The image Brod gives to the British colonialism is of a vampire, a highly suggestive image which denotes the ruinous impact of the colonial power that fully exploited the wealth and natural resources of the colonies. It is relevant to mention here that Frantz Fanon utilizes the word “vampirism” in his book, The Wretched of the Earth (1961/1963), to reflect on colonialism as a force that drains the colonized lands by exploiting the wealth of these lands similar to the way a vampire sucks the blood of its victims. These merciless exploitations of the colonies’ natural resources leave the natives with nothing to live for, hence, unable to grant their children the opportunity for a higher education. Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o (1938-), a Kenyan postcolonial critic, comments on this idea in Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1987/1994). Thiong'o, while recalling his childhood memories of listening to folkloric stories, draws attention to the lands’ exploitations by the colonial forces:

We children would re-tell the stories the following day to other children who worked in the fields picking the pyrethrum flowers, tea-leaves or coffee beans of our European and African landlords (p.10).

It is evident that those children could not attend schools because of poverty, therefore, they worked in plantation fields owned by the white masters and the feudal African lords.

This triangle of poverty, lack of education, and being a native of a former British colony are skillfully tackled in Pinnock’s other play, Mules (1996). The play concentrates on the issues of discrimination and poverty endured by the black immigrant women of Jamaica. The text depicts two Jamaican sisters Lou and Lyla who are moving between Jamaica and the UK. Driven by severe poverty and need, the two sisters become smugglers risking their lives only to get into more hideous troubles. These are the perilous lingering effects of colonialism on the impoverished natives of the former British colonies (Öğünç, 2016).

Bitterly recalling the old days of deprivation and hardship is aptly portrayed in the scene when Enid reproaches her younger daughter Viv for being wasteful:

ENID. You ever been hungry, Viv?

VIV. Yeah. I've been hungry...

ENID. Not that little nibbling English lunchtime hunger. I talking 'bout the sort that roar in your belly day and night till you think you going mad with the thought a food (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.2. 3-14).

The previous dialogue describes mother's earlier days in Jamaica, when she and her family struggled to endure extreme poverty and hunger—a life that Viv cannot fully understand. The mother explains to the daughter that having food to satisfy hunger and a decent house to protect one from adverse weather conditions are all luxuries that indignant people in Jamaica could not afford. In Culture and Imperialism (1993/1994), Edward Said states that the natives in the colonies relentlessly encountered injustice, exploitation, and varying forms of “unending economic oppression, distortion of their social and intimate lives, and a resourceless submission that was the function of unchanging European superiority” (p. 22). Said’s argument focuses on the debilitating impact of the colonial forces on the economy of the colonies. He exemplifies this assumption by addressing the experience of Algeria as a colonized country “European civilian emigrants are using up the resources of Algeria without restraint or reason” (Said, 1993/1994, p.182). The colonial power cruelly deprived the colonies of their wealth and natural resources, leaving the natives with nothing but a life of harsh labor and extreme need.

In another decisive scene in Leave Taking, Enid unfolds to Viv that Jamaica, a reason behind their escape, drove her and her husband to seek ways to flee to the UK:

Oh yes, I did escape didn't I? Lucky me. (Beat.) You know where I come from? I come from the dirt. I come from the poorest family in the whole a Jamaica. People used to laugh at us, pick on us. An' we still use to walk around like we was something. (Laughs at herself, bitter.) Escape. To what? Where I going run to now? (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.4.17-23).

Enid’s memories of her life at home testify to the fact that for the natives of the colonies, Britain is more than a new country to live in. It represents the only way out of the impoverished life at home. However, this hope is altered into a bitter disappointment as she encounters varying challenges in her new country. These challenges are related to the high cost of living demands, low payment, and racial discrimination. However, the supposed haven turns out to be as harsh as the home country. Enid’s sense of estrangement is evident when she laments, “Escape. To what? Where I going run to now?” This deep sense of alienation, coupled with the financial and social hardships she encounters daily, exacerbates her struggles (Mohammed & Mahmud, 2022).

Mai, the other significant character in this play, bitterly narrates her departure from her home country along with her family in search of better living conditions: “My mother did run away to Cuba in the twenties to cut cane, and I came here. It must be some kind a curse that condemn our people to wander the earth like ghosts who can't find rest?” (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.6.132-138). Mai reveals the suffering of the Caribbean people as they leave their home countries in the hope of a better life, yet they encounter new adverse circumstances in the exile. Mai’s revelation here highlights the themes of displacement and the sense of not belonging, as if natives in the colonies are "cursed" to wander the world without finding a true home.

In contrast to the feeling of estrangement and displacement, comes the attitude of solidarity and fraternity which the natives in the homeland demonstrate towards the members of their community. In a dialogue between Enid and Del, the daughter gives money to her mother asking her to send it to her family at home since they are in a serious need of it:

DEL. Send it to your family back home. They need it more than me.

ENID. You think so? In a way we poorer than them. Them all in it together. when I was a girl you kill a cow you share it up, everybody in the district' get a piece. Here, you poor and you by yourself (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.8.180-185).

In Jamaica, the social rules people seem to maintain are those of sharing what each one has. In the above dialogue, Enid describes killing a cow and sharing the meat with the rest of the community. This is a strong gesture on the spirit of solidarity and cooperation that is dominant among the members of a tribe or a community there. However, in the UK this tendency to share is replaced by egotism and selfishness: “You poor and you by yourself”, the mother explains to her daughter. These are the reasons that the Jamaican immigrants, like Enid, feel estranged and aloof from the British society and culture as this culture permits no solidarity among its members (Mohamed, 2019).

The family of Enid shows an evident disparity between the mother’s hard work to provide for the family and the daughters’ obliviousness to the mother’s sacrifices. The diligent mother has two jobs in order to provide for her daughters a house with running water, electricity, and food in the fridge. Though these are basic needs, they can hardly be provided in the home country. However, for the two daughters as they grew up amid these amenities they failed to appreciate them. The contrasting views of Enid and Del on the quality of life in the UK are conveyed through their intense dialogue.

DEL. I hate it here.

ENID. You ungrateful...

DEL. Grateful for what? This shithole? A greasy job in a greasy café where they treat me like a dum dum and give me a couple of pounds at the end of every week? What's that to be grateful for?

ENID. I work two jobs seven days a week to put food in you belly and roof over you head. I wear one dress, one pair a shoes with hole in it so that you can dress like those children who have fathers. People laugh at me, but they never laugh at you (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.2. 321-333).

The strenuous efforts the mother bears in her two jobs and the sacrifices she constantly makes such as wearing “one dress, one pair of shoes with hole in it” are all done for the sake of her daughters. Nevertheless, Del seems to be frustrated viewing her house as a dirty hole and the cafe where she works as greasy and ugly while she is treated with cruel racism by her boss. Racism and discrimination are other significant issues Del has to encounter daily at work. Hence, the new generation, the offspring of the immigrating parents, is not leading a prosperous life as the parents hoped they would.

Commenting on the disparity between the old generation of immigrants and the new one, Öğünç (2018) clarifies two key ideas in this respect which are displacement and identity problems. These two dynamic ideas are represented in the character of Enid. She tirelessly strives to establish a good life in Britain, while maintaining connections to her Jamaican traditions and norms.

Though Enid lives far distant from her homeland, she frequently feels herself a Jamaican not British since she maintains the cultural heritage of her home country. On the other hand, Del and Viv seem to struggle with an identity crisis as a result of neither fully feeling Jamaican nor fully British. Their attachment to the homeland is fragile since they have no memories of this country, nor have they ever been there. Meanwhile, their sense of belonging to Britain is shaky, as they often encounter racial discrimination (Goddard, 2011). This sense of ambivalence lucidly points to Bhabha’s notion of the "split" identity. Bhabha elucidates that immigrants may feel the pull of two powers within them. One is his/her own understanding of who he/she is as a native of a certain country, while the other force is his/her new emerging identity as he/she lives in the host country to become a citizen of (Bhabha, 1994). In Leave Taking, Del experiences an evident identity crisis marked by tension between two forces. The first is the influence of her mother who relentlessly asserts in her daughters their sense of belonging to their original land, Jamaica. The other force is connected to the impact of Britain , the country where Del grew up.

The community's fierce remarks about the skin color of the two daughters are a constant reminder that they are foreigners and immigrants, hence, not British citizens. Skin color and racial attitudes are dominant themes in the play Leave Taking. In the dialogue between Enid and Brod, the latter complains:

A few years ago, I woulda say the same thing. All my life I think of meself as a British subject, wave a flag on Empire Day, touch me hat whenever me see a picture the queen. Then them send me letter say if me don't get me nationality paper in order they going kick me outta the country (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.2.87-93).

In this quote, it is evident that Brod used to consider himself a loyal British citizen, celebrating Empire Day and showing respect for the monarchy. This tendency testifies to his willingness to be fully assimilated into the British society. Young (2023) discusses this theme in Leave Taking, by stating “Jamaicans had travelled to England to assert their legal status as British subjects” (p. 131). However, Brod’s sense of belonging to Britain is shattered when he receives a letter threatening him with deportation unless he formalizes his nationality status. This shows the harsh reality of racial discrimination Brod encounters despite all the years he has spent in the UK and his loyalty to the country.

In another scene, Brod offers more details on the incident with the governmental office of citizenship, he relates the punishment he may face if he does not comply with the regulations:

BROD. Call me a alien. As if me live the last thirty years on the moon instead of on this blasted estate. I had to pay fifty pounds to become a citizen (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.2.90-102).

Brod’s account testifies to the idea that his citizenship is conditional and based on bureaucratic rules that dictate the immigrants to pay 50 pounds a year to get their citizenship papers renewed. This act plainly shows that immigrants are treated like tenants who need regularly to pay their mortgages or are otherwise deported (Mohammed & Mahmud, 2022). Brod’s use of the word “alien” to describe himself is suggestive as this noun clearly suggests dehumanization and discrimination. Therefore, racial discrimination is the central obstacle that fails the immigrants to fully integrate into the host country, Britain.

Even if the immigrant succeeds in achieving a high standard of living in the exile, he/she might not be treated as equally as the natives. This idea is clearly caught in Brod’s account of Gullyman. He is a well-to-do Jamaican immigrant who seems to have achieved a prosperous life in the UK. Still, he constantly faces outrageous behaviors from the white residents in his neighborhood:

One morning Gullyman wake up to find him lovely car covered in shit and a message on him door read 'wogs out'. Gullyman heart brock, him mind crack, and now he can hardly talk broken English (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.2.145-150).

Brod describes the shock Gulllyman feels as he sees his favorite car covered in dirt and a racial remark written on it telling him to walk out of the country. Being a black immigrant and a wealthy one seems to trigger more racial furry by the young people in Gullyman’s neighborhood who cover his car with filth and dirt. Mohamed (2019) states that Pinnock utilizes the protagonist and other characters as instruments to illustrate the dark history of black immigrants in the white society, a history that is full of vicious racial behaviors. He also highlights the reason behind such behaviors as owing to the belief in the inferiority of the dark skin compared to the white race. On this firm connection between skin color and the inferiority statues, Frantz Fanon argues:

Whiteness has become a symbol of purity, of Justice, Truth, Virginity. It defines what it means to be civilized, modern, and human. That is why the Negro knows nothing of the cost of freedom … were always white liberty and white justice; that is, values secreted by his masters (p. 13).

This thinker’s explanation criticizes the constructed belief about the white skin color as a feature of civilization and a trait of the advanced human race. He highlights that white skin color is deeply rooted in righteousness and humanity while dark skin is connected to backwardness and primitiveness. This is Fanon’s strong commentary on the pervasive nature of racial inequality.

In addition to skin color, the inability to speak the correct English language can be an inseparable part of the problem of racism. British citizens assume that the immigrants speak poor English, thus, their capacity to comprehend what is said to them, the immigrants, is weak. Fanon contends “to speak pidgin to a Negro makes him angry because he himself is a pidgin-nigger-talker. … this automatic manner of classifying him, imprisoning him, primitivizing him, decivilizing him, that makes him angry” (p.20). Here, Fanon explains that the “pidgin” language for the white colonizer, symbolizes a feature of the backwardness of the black race being unable to speak English in a correct manner as the white colonizer. This firm connection between dark skin color and poor English language is exemplified in the speech by Del. She furiously complains about her boss at work “he talks to me as if I can’t speak English” (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.2.169). Even though Del is able to speak in a clear English language, her white boss insists on speaking to her in a manner that presupposes her lack of understanding. In another confrontation with her mother, Del bitterly bursts out: “You don't see the police vans hunting us down, or the managers who treat us like we're the lowest of the low” (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.2.205-207). The phrase “haunting us down” expresses the constant racial threats, fear, and indignation Del encounters on her daily trip to work only because she is black.

As a child, Del vehemently remembers the mistreatment her mother received from her manager. It was Christmas time, Del recalls, and all the workers in a hospital were invited to the party including her mother who worked as a cleaner in that hospital. Suddenly one of the white nurses fell sick and threw up, the matron ordered her mother to do the cleaning:

You're all dressed up and you look beautiful. We're having fun. Then one of the nurses drinks too much and pukes all over the floor, remember that? And, in front of everyone, matron tells you to clean it up. You put your overalls on over your beautiful dress; in front of everyone there, you get a mop and bucket and clean it up (1.2.213-219).

The fact that the matron commands Enid to clean the floor, though she is out of duty hours and is well-dressed for the occasion, is a lucid instance of the harsh racial treatment people of color relentlessly confront within the UK (Sherbini et al., 2022). Such an insulting treatment can lead to low self-esteem as Del shouts “How can you love yourself when you are always bottom of the pile?” (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.6.122-123). The daughter expresses her dissatisfaction with her life and stresses the cruelty of the racial behaviors in her community.

In her one-woman show Tituba (2018), Pinnock precisely portrays the dilemma of a black slave woman Tituba in (1692), during the famous Salem Trails. In a remembered scene, Tituba shouts “A slave is a half-human creature” (p.18). The play accentuates the firm link between racism and dehumanization being the key features of the system of slavery. Later, this character elaborately stresses the fact that being a ghost is far better than being a slave as the ghost is free while the slave is permanently confined. Probably, Pinnock’s motive for writing this one-woman show is due to her profound dissatisfaction with the way Arthur Miller (1915-2005) depicts Tituba in his famous play The Crucible (1953). In Pinnock’s article “Reclaiming Tituba: What The Crucible Left out” (2022), the playwright raises the question “Why did he portray her as a stereotypical African voodoo priestess, denying her the complexity and humanity that he bestowed on other characters?” (p.104). Such a portrayal, according to Pinnock, is clearly racist denying Tituba of her full human depth and complexity.

Another character who equally suffers from the devastating effects of racism is Enid’s husband. Unable to endure the fierce dehumanizing behaviors and remarks of the white workers at a meat factory, Enid’s husband plunges into a deep depression from the city and his family:

Now, he was a madman. I never see a man eyes look so empty. At first him an' you mother share everything. When one work in the morning the other one look after the kids and go to work at night. Them was a good team. I really believe it would work. It wasn't till we get job a Smithfield meat market that him start to change. Hear the other men, yah, 'Show us yer tail, yer black monkey.' Keep our mouth shut, keep our anger inside. But you father change from a smiling boy into a hard man (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.7. 104-114).

The change in the personality of the father from a "smiling boy" to a "hard man" displays the destructive impact of racism on the black immigrants as Enid’s husband here. The racial remarks of the white co-workers which are constantly thrown at Enid’s husband 'Show us yer tail, yer black monkey” breeds a deep rage within him, a rage that he could not be articulated.

This key issue of the black people being depicted as less fully human beings than the white race is the key theme in numerous novels among which probably the most reputed one is Heart of Darkness (1899) by Joseph Conrad (1857- 1942). Through Conrad dexterously portrays the horror of colonialization in Congo, he constantly represents the Africans as ghostly figures walking around carrying weights and doing work for the white master. Chinua Achebe (1930-2013), a prominent African novelist, sharply criticizes the novel in his article entitled “An Image of Africa” (2016) saying that Conrad denies Africans of their humanity. They are situated in the same category as the river, the forests, and the wilderness itself. He also wrote Things Fall Apart (1958) to reject Conrad’s depiction of the Africans.

The inner turmoil caused by the ruthless racial attitudes and insulative remarks is a feeling harshly endured by the mother Enid as well as by all the black characters in this play. This is represented in the most remembered speech of the mother as she confesses her inner turmoil to her daughter Del:

Nobody see you, nobody hear you. You could work fifty years with people and they still don't know you name. People walk through you like you not there, push you out the way. All the time you screaming, you screaming inside but nobody come. You don't exist (Pinnock, 1987/2018, 1.8.188-193).

Enid declares that being black is equivalent to being “invisible” since white people around her seem not to recognize her existence as a human being with dignity and personal qualities. The mother is drained out after enduring harsh discrimination and ill-treatment for many years (Mohammed & Mahmud, 2022). Enid’s dreams of achieving a decent life in the UK are shattered, along with her dignity and humanity, which are profoundly undermined by the host country. She begins to see herself as a victim of racial discrimination and a complete stranger in a country that she previously mistakenly thought to be her dreamland.

Conclusion

Pinnock’s Leave Taking lucidly demonstrates the struggles of an immigrant Jamaican family in the UK in the eighties. Through the lens of the protagonist and her family members, Pinnock dexterously addresses the varying challenges the black Jamaican immigrants encounter in what they thought to be once as the dreamland UK. These challenges are pertinent to financial difficulties, identity problems, and racial discrimination. The play centers around the sacrifices of the first-generation immigrants for the well-being of the offspring, the second generation. Enid’s departure from Jamaica to Britain is the result of poverty and extreme need. Still, her life in the diaspora proves to be as harsh as life in her home country, only with new adversities ahead. Being helpless at encountering such challenges, the characters in this play are left with a sense of deep frustration and inadequacy. Enid’s journey stresses the lasting impacts of colonial enterprise on black immigrants demonstrating the social anguish they endure in their aim to be integrated and to achieve decent living standards. Pinnock’s portrayal of Enid encapsulates the resilience of immigrants who, despite enduring economic and racial hardships, persist in seeking acceptance within a community indifferent to their struggles.

Another key aspect the play skillfully explores is the task of maintaining one’s attachment to his/her home country, traditions, and culture. Enid, with determination, cherishes and preserves her traditions and Jamaican identity—a tendency she succeeds in instilling, to some extent, in her two daughters. Though the dream of the UK being the “promised land” for the indigent Jamaican immigrants is shattered, the hope in the offspring of the immigrating parents, as with Viv, to rise above the miserable living conditions of the parents is clear granting the play an evident optimistic end.

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