When South African Grammy-winning artist Tyla announced the African leg of her A POP World Tour, Lagos was among the cities where fans expected to see one of the continent’s fastest-rising stars.
The excitement did not last. On Nigerian social media, some users called for a boycott of the concert, arguing that South African artists should not expect a warm reception. At the same time, Nigerians and other Africans continue to face xenophobic violence in South Africa. Among those calling for the show to be brought down was Nigerian social-media activist Martin Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan. Days later, Lagos disappeared from Tyla’s tour itinerary.
There has been no public explanation from Tyla or her team for the change. This reporter contacted her management for comment but received no response at the time of publication. But the episode exposed a much bigger contradiction. For Iyabo Ademide, 21, who works at a pharmacy in Abuja, the cancellation was personal.
Like thousands of Nigerians, she had been looking forward to December in Lagos, when concerts, parties and nightlife turned the city into one of Africa’s major entertainment destinations. Tyla’s scheduled performance was part of the attraction.
Her disappointment, however, was quickly overshadowed by a larger question: why can an African culture and song cross borders almost instantly while an African musician, worker or fan may face hostility, visa, documentation problems or restrictions when attempting the same journey?
When Xenophobia Crosses Borders
Wits University’s Xenowatch report recorded 406 verified incidents of xenophobic discrimination between 2022 and 2025, resulting in 75 deaths; it recorded a further 22 verified incidents in the first five months of 2026, with vigilante groups imposing deadlines and demanding action against undocumented migrants. Anti-immigrant mobilisation included marches, intimidation, forced evictions, attacks and the displacement of migrants in parts of the country.
On June 28, two Nigerian nationals were killed during the violence, according to Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. One was allegedly killed by police officers and the other by unidentified attackers. Nigeria condemned the killings and urged its citizens not to retaliate. According to the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, Nigeria subsequently evacuated 1,490 Nigerians from South Africa by July 15, 2026. The government described the operation as a voluntary evacuation responding to xenophobic attacks and related security concerns.
Beyond Nigeria, since late May, more than 178,000 African migrants have left South Africa amid a crackdown on undocumented migration and growing anti-immigrant tension.
The backlash has also moved beyond social media and public anger, beginning to affect South Africa’s cultural exports. South Africa’s Justice Minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi, has publicly acknowledged that South African artists are losing bookings and having performances cancelled across Africa even when the artists themselves have no connection to xenophobic attacks.
Makhadzi’s scheduled performance at Zimbabwe’s Cheso Music Festival was cancelled, Musa Keys was removed from a festival lineup in Harare, and Mafikizolo lost a concert in Victoria Falls. South African gospel artist Sabata Masoka has also said that a Nigerian church conference postponed his appearance because organisers did not want to take artists from “xenophobic South Africa”, costing him R50,000.
A January 2026 Afrobarometer survey found that 56% of South Africans believed the government should limit cross-border movement, while only 40% supported free movement across Southern African borders for trade or work. The same survey found that 69% viewed immigrants’ economic impact negatively, while 83% supported reducing or eliminating the entry of foreign job seekers.
Speaking with Wale Ojetimi, the longest-serving foreign correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria, who has lived in South Africa for 26 years, the tension reflects a long-standing problem of belonging for some African migrants.
He describes xenophobic attacks as a violent manifestation of tensions between locals and non-natives. But the survey evidence suggests a more complicated reality than a country uniformly opposed to Pan-Africanism: South Africans hold sharply divided attitudes toward immigration, even as many continue to live alongside and interact with foreigners.
When Culture Moves Faster Than People
For nearly two decades, African music has crossed borders faster than politics. Afrobeats has spread from Lagos to Nairobi, Johannesburg, Accra and London. Amapiano has moved from South Africa into Nigerian clubs and global playlists. Artists collaborate across national, linguistic and cultural boundaries, often creating music that is difficult to categorise by nationality.
Tyla has participated in that cultural cross-pollination herself. Her collaboration with Nigerian superstar Wizkid and their joint performance at London’s All Points East festival in August 2025 offered another example of African artists building audiences beyond national borders. But the people behind the culture still encounter borders.
Ayra Starr’s experience offers a different illustration of how administrative requirements can disrupt African cultural exchange. In 2024, her planned South African performances were cancelled after she was unable to meet the country’s yellow fever vaccination requirements. The episode was later misrepresented online as evidence that she had been denied entry because of xenophobia. While it does not establish hostility toward Nigerians, it shows how administrative barriers can disrupt cultural exchange even when artists and audiences are eager to connect.
According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s 2026 Global Music Report, recorded-music revenues in sub-Saharan Africa grew by 15.2% in 2025 to $120 million. South Africa remained the region’s largest market, accounting for 78.1% of regional revenues after growing by 12.9%.
The success of these industries depends on people moving. Producers, musicians, film crews, dancers, designers, managers and technicians travel between countries, while festivals bring artists and audiences together. Streaming can cross borders without passports. The people producing the culture cannot.
From Tyla to a Continental Grievance
For Professor Jimoh Olaiya Amzat, a sociologist, the reaction to Tyla cannot be understood simply as anger toward one musician. “This is less about Tyla herself than about how social media collapses distance and turns individual grievances into national scripts,” he tells this reporter.
Repeated reports of xenophobic violence, he argues, act as trigger events, reviving collective memories and transforming individual frustration into broader national resentment. Tyla therefore becomes a symbolic proxy for grievances directed at governments and institutions.
“What we are seeing is eroding generalised trust,” Amzat says. “Distrust migrates from state-level grievance into interpersonal and cultural spaces because those are the only arenas where ordinary citizens feel they can retaliate or be heard.” The result is a contradiction at the heart of Pan-Africanism.
“Pan-Africanism has always been more of an elite, aspirational identity than a lived everyday one,” Amzat says. “Music creates moments of symbolic unity, but those moments remain fragile when they are not supported by freedom of movement, economic interdependence, and accountability.”
Cristiano D’Orsi, a researcher specialising in African refugee and migration law and visiting Professor (with a focus on Africa) at the University of Venda, sees xenophobia as a direct threat to those connections. “The rejection of fellow Africans creates a social fracture and blocks people-to-people connections,” he tells DA.
The damage, he argues, extends beyond individual migrants. Xenophobia can strain diplomatic relations, discourage cross-border labour mobility and weaken continental integration initiatives such as the African Continental Free Trade Area.
The Cost of Keeping People Apart
The economic case for migration is also more complicated than the political rhetoric suggests. An OECD–ILO study of South Africa’s economy found that immigrants contributed approximately 9% of GDP and that immigrant workers could increase income per capita by up to 5%, based on the economic data available to the study.
The study also found a positive net fiscal contribution from immigrants and no significant effect of immigrant workers on employment among South Africa’s native-born population at the national level. That matters for an African creative economy increasingly built around cross-border movement.
A disrupted concert does not affect only an artist. It can affect venue operators, promoters, sound engineers, security workers, hotels, transport providers, vendors and other informal workers whose livelihoods depend on cultural events.
For Nigeria and South Africa, the contradiction carries an additional historical weight. The countries established formal diplomatic relations in 1994, following Nigeria’s support for South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle. South Africa says Nigeria supported the African National Congress and other liberation movements and spearheaded campaigns for political and economic sanctions against apartheid.
Today, the two countries are among Africa’s most influential cultural and economic powers. South Africa has become the home of Amapiano; Nigeria has driven the global expansion of Afrobeats. Their artists collaborate, their audiences overlap and their companies operate across borders. ,Yet the relationship between their peoples remains vulnerable to political tensions.
When contacted, Akindele Olunloyo, National Publicity Secretary of the Nigerian Union South Africa, said many Nigerians have successfully integrated into South African society. But members continue to report business-related harassment, documentation difficulties and occasional hostility.
Preserving Pan-African unity, he argues, requires stronger protection for migrants, continued cultural collaboration and economic policies that address the conditions that fuel xenophobia.
Between Solidarity and Stereotyping
Some Nigerian fans supported calls to boycott Tyla as an act of solidarity with victims of xenophobic attacks. Others argued that musicians should not be held responsible for the actions of governments or individuals.
Rasaq Bolarinwa, 31, said Tyla’s silence on xenophobia made the boycott understandable. John Matthew disagreed, arguing that music, like football, can bring people together across political and national divisions.
Human rights activist and African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore also opposed the boycott, arguing that political leaders, not musicians, should be held accountable for xenophobic violence. “No one should hold a talented musician like Tyla vicariously liable for the crimes of xenophobia,” he wrote on X.
Misinformation Fuels
Journalists, meanwhile, have a role in preventing those tensions from becoming broader stereotypes. Veteran journalist and media trainer Lekan Otunfodunrin warns against presenting xenophobic violence as though it represents the whole of South Africa.
“We should report the matter for whatever it is worth as clearly as possible,” he says, warning journalists against relying on social-media narratives that may amount to misinformation or disinformation. Media strategist Yinka Olaito similarly argues that journalism should examine the structural causes of xenophobia rather than simply reproduce anger.
“If there are undocumented migrants, they did not fall from heaven,” he says, pointing instead to corruption, weak enforcement and governance failures that allow irregular migration to persist. The legal framework, meanwhile, already offers protections.
Legal practitioner Waliu Olaitan Wahab says South Africa’s Constitution, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and international treaties including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination provide substantial protections against discrimination and violence.
“The legal framework is largely adequate on paper. Implementation remains the greatest challenge,” he tells DA.
An Unfinished Anthem
Professor Amzat believes rebuilding trust therefore requires more than celebrating Pan-Africanism through music. It requires accountability when xenophobic violence occurs, stronger regional cooperation, enforcement of migrant protections, cross-border journalism that humanises rather than stereotypes, and sustained cultural exchanges that create relationships rather than one-off spectacles.
The challenge is not persuading Africans to enjoy one another’s music. They already do. The challenge is ensuring that the freedom enjoyed by African music is eventually matched by greater freedom for the people who create it.
Long before politicians spoke of continental integration, African musicians were already practising it. They crossed borders in search of audiences, collaborated across languages and built careers on the belief that talent could matter more than nationalit.That belief has produced some of Africa’s greatest cultural successes.
Whether it can survive xenophobia, restrictive mobility and declining trust may determine not only the future of African music, but how far the continent’s vision of Pan-Africanism can become an everyday reality. Amzat argues that if an African song can travel farther than an African citizen, then the continent’s most inspiring anthem of unity remains unfinished.
Writer: Hussain Kehinde Wahab
Editors: Amaka Obioji, Chimee Adioha
Image: Diaspora Africa
