Nowadays South Africa is known in many places of the world as the rainbow nation. This term was coined by Archbishop Desmon Tutu (a social rights activist of South Africa and a retired Anglican bishop) to describe post-apartheid, after South africa's first fully democratic election in 1994. After that Nelson Mandela elaborated this phrase: "Each of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld - a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world".
Desmond Mpilo Tutu
Basicaly the meaning of the rainbow symbolize the unity of multi-cultulralism and the coming-together of people of many different nations and races, in a country once identified with the strict division of white and black people. But, in this way, what is the importance and the meaning of this metaphor for the South African people?
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For many South Africans this term means a positive way to express their own country, specially if we consider that South Africa is a place where certain races were treated poorly and unfairly.
About the South African indigenous cultures, the rainbow is associated with a bright future and hope (as in Xhosa culture). And the colours simply symbolise the diversity of South Africa's usually unspecified racial, ethnic or cultural groups.
In general we can say that the rainbow's term is a symbol of the cultural diversity in South Africa, as for example, the amount of languages in the country. And to finish I want to show us a short speech of Nelson Mandela about the rainbow nation's expectation.
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