Social rights activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu is credited with coinage of the expression rainbow nation, first using it in 1994 as a metaphor for post-apartheid South Africa. This later spawned the noun rainbowism, used pejoratively in South African political commentary to refer to an idealistic sense of unity and reconciliation that glosses over the real, problematic issues.

Social rights activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu is credited with coinage of the expression rainbow nation, first using it in 1994 as a metaphor for post-apartheid South Africa. This later spawned the noun rainbowism, used pejoratively in South African political commentary to refer to an idealistic sense of unity and reconciliation that glosses over the real, problematic issues.