Myths and Heroes (Rainbow Nation)

Myths and Heroes (Rainbow Nation)

   I am going to speak about the notion Myths and Heroes. A myth is usually a popular belief or story that explains natural or social phenomena and which often involves fabulous beings or events. A hero is a person who is admired for his achievements and his exemplary qualities. We will analyse the case of South Africa in order to illustrate the notion.

   South Africa is a typical example to illustrate the notion Myths and Heroes because in 1994 the Rainbow Nation was created by Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela just after the Apartheid.

   The Rainbow Nation was an idea of gathering between all the nation against discrimination and racial segregation, it is a symbol of diversity and that made the greatness of South Africa.

                                        We may ask ourselves is the Rainbow nation coming to an end?

   In the first part we will see why the Rainbow Nation can still last a long time and in the second part we will analyse why it has come to a halt?

   First of all Rainbow nation can still last a long time because it's based on strong beliefs and they believe in a return of peace after Nelson Mandela’s election. Indeed we saw in a document entitled “Inaugural Speech, Pretoria – 5/10/94”, Mandela’s speech in Pretoria when he became president of the Democratic Republic of South Africa, that he is addressing the whole country and even beyond he wants to include everyone, he spoke about a new beginning, a new era for the country “new born liberty” because before that South Africa has long practiced a segregationist policy, the Apartheid, which was a disaster for the country. He explains that he wants to restore peace between whites and blacks, blacks people have no more bitterness against white people and what they did. Because of all the country wants to start from scratch and form a united country, Rainbow nation is the best project to gather all the different population of South Africa.

   Then in a second document called “Coca-cola: Rainbow” an advertising campaign by Coca-cola on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the first democratic election in South Africa, Nelson Mandela's one. In this project, Coca Cola created with engineers a fake rainbow over one of the largest skyscrapers in the center of Johannesburg. The idea of coca-cola was to bring together the citizens of the rainbow nation to celebrate 20 years of democracy by creating small moments of happiness. We see that 20 years after the creation of the Rainbow nation, it is still present, they continue to celebrate it.

   But it has not always been easy to keep the rainbow nation of topicality.

   Indeed, we saw in a video that poverty is strongly present in South Africa for quite a few years. In this video interviewees say that a large part of Africans living in poverty and ghettos in Cape Town, there are not enough houses for everyone, there are big hygiene problems too. People are very disappointed with this non-change, so they demonstrate against corruption and the government and for work. Nelson Mandela is accused of not acting against poverty. This discontent creates a gap between people and the rainbow nation.

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