Mandela and the televised birth of the rainbow nation

Abstract

In the early 1990s, the response to the nation-building challenge in South Africa came most visibly through the adoption of rainbow nationalism, associated with Nelson Mandela and articulated through the medium of television. This article examines three powerful televised ‘spectacles’ – Mandela's release, his inauguration and the 1995 Rugby World Cup – all of which constituted ‘media events’ in the sense described by Dayan and Katz. The article argues that the illusion of a reconciled nation displayed in these broadcasts facilitated South Africa's transition, but also elided some of the complexities of the era.