By Theem Isaac Machar Akot
Very long ago, there lived a widow in a village with her son and a daughter. The daughter was called “Anyuoth” meaning “dream.”
The husband died at a young age when the two kids were under 10 years old.
The mother managed all she could to bring her kids up. As a culture among the Jieng, a deceased’s wife must remarry one of her brothers-in-law to produce kids for the deceased. It was unfortunate that no one remarried the woman.
As the kids grew older, the son was sent to a cattle camp while Anyuoth stayed home with her mother. Years passed, but the young girl saw none of her uncles making love with her mother.
That made the young girl think negatively. It was a summer season, so she was sent by the mother to visit her brother in the cattle camp. Upon arrival, she had a heart-to-heart conversation with the brother after a meal.
“I have news to break,” she said. The brother keenly lent her his ears. “Your mother is refusing to make love with any of our uncles. Her intention is to remarry you”, she claimed.
The brother almost broke into tears, but she had all consolatory words to alleviate her brother. Having spent some good time with her brother, she told her brother to allow her to go back home. And she was granted permission.
The shameless Anyuoth upon arrival at home claimed, “Your son says, unless my mother agrees to remarry me, I will never marry another woman.”
It was awful in the mother’s ears and wanted to climb a tree and throw herself down. The mother called the uncles of the kids and the son. She explained all that the daughter had said. Anyuoth, in the gathering of the elders, was asked to clarify her propaganda but could not even say a word.
It was learned that she had propagated the lie herself. She angered the elders to curse her, and she mysteriously disappeared. Up to now, her whereabouts are not known. She is believed to be the one who makes us dream every night. End the story.
In correlation, a sycophant has one thing in common with the main character in the story. And that is the “propagation of lies”.
I often open my English language dictionaries. The intention for consulting more than one dictionary is to know the meanings of the words sycophancy and sycophant. Before reading the meanings, there is always this word enclosed with barracks that read (disapproving), which makes my reading ability numb.
Semantically, a connotative or denotative meaning of a word has both positive and negative aspects, but there are those words whose meanings barely have a positive denotative or connotative meaning. Among these are sycophancy and sycophant.
One might haven’t had time to consult an English dictionary to find out the difference between the two words and what they mean. This brings us to the questions: What is sycophancy, and who is a sycophant? Well, sycophancy is an act of flattering important people in a bogus manner to get a reward.
A sycophant is someone who praises powerful people in an insincere way to get something from them. Therefore, the denotative meanings, logical meanings, in other words, of the two meanings saying untrue things about others in order to earn a living. Whereas the connotative meanings or associated meanings indicate bootlicking and betrayal. In simple terms, a sycophant is both a bootlicker and a traitor.
And at worst, a sycophant is a mentally unable person, dishonest unconfident, and who lacks self-realization. Thus, I am out-and-out baffled to comprehend why sycophancy is a job in South Sudan and why sycophants are called hard-working people.
We should instead tell them the consequences of worm-mongering and so end the act.