The extraordinary Josia Thugwane kept the best for last and made the rainbow flag fly over the closing ceremony of the Games. […] Today we honour all our athletes who ensured that the rainbow flag never touched the ground in Atlanta.

In 1994 South Africa held its first fully democratic elections which were overwhelmingly won by the ANC and Mandela became the first black president. At midnight on April 26th the new rainbow flag was raised and the new national anthem, Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika (God Bless Africa), was sung across the nation.

We are pleased to be sending off our hard working teams to go and represent the nation abroad, and fly the rainbow flag high.

Mandela is a Xhosa, an eastern Bantu tribe with some admixture of Bushman genes and language. He is also the integrator of the highly diverse South African nation, with a half Portuguese wife […] thus Mandela is a 'painted', ordained figure, incidental with attributes of the type, and the South African rainbow flag.

That is how the invitation to President Mandela's inauguration fell to me. As I watched the ceremonies, and observed the rainbow flag of a newly freed nation unfold, I reflected on the growth of the international scrutiny of contested laws in every country, including my own.

Just as the rainbow in the blue skies, after a rainstorm, testifies to the existence of imperishable sunshine in the higher firmament, so this rainbow flag of China, born in the throes of the Chinese Revolution, is a standing proof of our abiding faith in democratic government […]

[…] but each Chinese patriot following me will bear, as I bear before you my beloved Chinese rainbow flag, which has come to its life because of the Stars and Stripes. (Displaying the two flags.)

Officially, however, the five 'strips' or stripes on the Chinese rainbow flag represented – in addition to all five colours of the rainbow as traditionally conceived there – the country's[…]

This new national identity is manifested by the rainbow flag known as the Wiphala in the Aymara language and is anchored in several zones, such as El Alto, and in the indigenous communities.

The rainbow flag, the wiphala, became the visual representation of the previously clandestine Indian nation and was carried in all public manifestations as a symbol of rebellion. The claim to nationhood became complete with the[…]

In Bolivia, the Katarista movements of the 1970s revived the Wiphala flag symbolizing Qullasuyu, their quadrant of the Inca empire, as part of their rural, indigenous and anti-colonial politics. The rainbow flag of forty-nine squares[…]

Rainbow flag

Meaning

Noun

Synonyms