Rainbow Nation is a term coined by the then Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu to describe post-1994 South Africa when apartheid rule officially ended after South Africa's first fully-democratic election, which was won by the African National Congress (ANC).

The phrase was elaborated upon by President Nelson Mandela in his first month of office, when he proclaimed: "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" (cited in Manzo 1996, p.71).