‘Grease Yakka’ phenomenon

by Sumanasiri Liyanage

(September 05, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) In recent times since the end of the armed conflict, media, both print and electronic, has evinced an interest in seemingly petty things and events. In a way, this signifies that we live in a ‘normal’ time. Is there an arsenic content in locally produced rice? Does the petroleum corporation sell diluted petrol and diesel? Is there a rock underneath the entrance to the Hambantota Harbour? Is the government going to sell wild elephants to private sector? I am not saying that these issues are not of importance. They are important as those issues are directly linked with the well-being of the people and other life forms.When these stories are in circulation, everybody tends to add something wittingly or unwittingly. "In Sri Lanka," as Michael Ondaatje writes, in a kind of credo, "a well-told lie is worth a thousand facts." Latest addition to these stories is about the haunting of ‘Grease Yaka’ (Grease Devil) in several parts of the island. What does this novel story signify? What are the implications of the ‘grease yakka’ phenomenon? Of course, there cannot be one interpretation. Many commentators will look at this ‘well-told lie’ or ‘fact’ from different angles that may in turn depend on their own interests.

Who is this grease devil? Although some cartoonists portrayed it as politicians or their relatives or goons who could easily escape from anything, there has been no serious attempt to investigate this imaginary character. Is this purely an imaginary construction that was empty, null and arbitrarily ‘stuck together’? Does this imaginary construction correspond to reality or is it just an illusion?

I am sure that nobody would be able to find out when the word ‘Grease Yaka’ was invented to denote this novel creature. The word ‘grease’ implies two meanings, unclean and slippery. Yakka is dangerous and out-worldly creature. All the devils are considered generally unclean so that one may surmise that the focus here is on the slippery character. Portraying grease yakka as unclean, slippery and dangerous creature that comes from the external world, however, raises some questions. In the last few weeks, we came across persons who were suspected, captured or killed by identified by ‘others’ as grease yakas. Two persons who were killed brutally on an up-country estate were very ordinary looking people without any customarily identified devilish appearance. Hence, it seems that the distinction between externality and internality is also blurred here. Both the perpetrators (humans) and victims (devils) were from the same community speaking the same language and sharing the same cultural markers. But they were external to the particular estate, the immediate neighbourhood. In this sense, grease yaka is quite different from traditional yakas, like ‘mahasona’ or ‘reeriyakka’ as it is believed that the latter yakkas represent an outer domain. It was also said that the grease devil was dangerous mainly for middle-aged women and it was said that it had an abnormal taste (in some areas it was said that the grease devil was stealing women’s underwear). Does this indicate that it is also a middle-age devil with abnormal mental status? Some cartoonists in the past few weeks portrayed the grease devils as similar to politicians in Sri Lanka. In fact,t the politicians pointed fingers at their opponents.

The other astonishing but interesting fact is that the belief among ethnic minorities that they are the worst affect by the grease devil. They tend to believe that grease devils are living in the vicinity but outside the community, in and out at the same time. They can appear and disappear easily. People in those areas appear to believe that grease devils are protected by strong forces over which the people in their community has no control. Of course, the description given above does not imply that there is uniformity in perception of the grease devil, different narratives can be found in different areas depending on the issues. It is also interesting to note, even people who belong to religio-cultural setting in which there is no strong ‘yakka’ concept tend to believe the presence of grease devil.

Who is this grease devil? Although some cartoonists portrayed it as politicians or their relatives or goons who could easily escape from anything, there has been no serious attempt to investigate this imaginary character. Is this purely an imaginary construction that was empty, null and arbitrarily ‘stuck together’? Does this imaginary construction correspond to reality or is it just an illusion? One thing is clear; it signifies the presence of internally generated fear, anxiety, threat and uncertainty. It is also interesting to note that this internally generated fear, anxiety etc., are more common among numerically small national or ethnic communities. They seem to believe that there are forces that can perpetrate harm and slip away.

As Louis Althusser once remarked, "the ‘ideas’ or ‘representations’, etc., which seem to make up ideology do not have an ideal (idéale or idéelle) or spiritual existence, but a material existence." Hence the grease devil may be imaginary, but what exists beneath this construction is real although the distance between real and imaginary may be quite significant. As I mentioned above there is an ambiguity on the issue. Similarly, there is no clarity whether it belongs to the private or public domain. It is clear that the grease devil attacks the private domain (stealing women’s under garments) so that the people are seeking that police and law enforcement officers should protect them. On the other hand, as the people tend to attack anybody suspected as the grease devil, police has to protect them and as a result people tend to believe that public institutions are protecting the grease devil. This paradox takes us to another interesting dimension: are the fear and anxiety conditioned by the cultural factors could be included in what Althusser called the ideological state apparatus? Ideological state apparatus, according to Althusser, is essentially plural and uses multiple mechanisms. Hence, one may argue that in the final analysis, the construction of imaginary ‘devil’ or ‘yakka’ would contribute in many ways the prevailing state apparatus.

However, the enigma of ideological state apparatus is its contradictory nature. It would also destabilise the state in some instances if the penetration of ideological state apparatus goes deeper into private sphere. At the beginning, I have noted that the stories that are spreading fast signify that we live in normal time. The statement needs some degree of reservation. We have witnessed during the past few months that any small event can trigger a riot situation, in which people spontaneously act by engaging in activities that are portrayed by the state and media as unlawful. Imaginary constructions symbolise fear, threat, anxiety, uncertainty and insecurity felt by the masses. In such a situation, imaginary constructions lead people to get mobilised and act spontaneously. The possibility of any small event to trigger local level riots and also the possibility of simultaneous presence of such local riots in many places demonstrate that the government’s stability and strength shown at electoral outcome do not tell us the full story. A society in which people live in constant fear, threat, insecurity and anxiety is not a society that is cohesive and stable.

The writer teaches political economy at the University of Peradeniya. He can be reached at sumane_l@ yahoo.com