77 / 80
The one country that seems to
thoroughly contradict this view is
South Africa – known as the
“Rainbow Nation” – a term coined
by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and
later adopted by the then President
Nelson Mandela, it being a metaphor
to describe the country’s newly
developing multicultural diversity,
following the quashing of the
previous
apartheid
ideology. Today,
South Africa is a nation despite its
troubled past, and South Africans,
whatever their background, believe
this to be truly the case.
Not so very long ago, such an
outcome would have seemed
unimaginable, and the fact that it
has happened in South Africa
suggests it could happen elsewhere.
Africa has enormous manpower
and resources at its disposal, if only
they could be harnessed efficiently
and corruption brought to an end. It
would make sense, therefore, to
hope that in the next 50 years, Africa
will come to the fore, India and
China having already shown it the
way in recent years.
A Concise History of Africa
77
Text-Dependent Questions
1. Which modern-day country was once was the ancient
kingdom of the Dahomey?
2. Kwame Nkrumah was the founding father of which country?
3. Who first used the term “Rainbow Nation” to describe multicultural
society in South Africa?