Tyla, Trevor and culture war

South African Grammy-winning artiste, Tyla, will no longer hold a concert in Nigeria during her upcoming world tour. She has pulled Lagos from the list of 34 cities she earlier announced for a musical globetrot scheduled for later this year to promote her new album, A*POP. Although there was no reason cited for updating the list, the 24-year-old had faced a clamour to perish the thought of having a show in Nigeria over anti-immigrant aggression in her country. She had scheduled to make a stop in Lagos on 22nd December as part of the world tour.

Just before the singer adjusted her itinerary, an online petition titled “Ban Tyla from entering Nigeria until xenophobic attacks stop in South Africa” made the rounds and garnered thousands of signatures. After she unveiled her initial tour plan on social media, Nigerians raised a campaign to forbid her from coming for a performance here because she failed to speak out against xenophobic violence back home.

Tyla isn’t the only South African celebrity who has faced the heat for silence on attacks against migrants in that country. Ace comedian, Trevor Noah, came under fire recently for fronting an advert for the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA). The promotional clip, shared on the council’s social media accounts, generated comments criticising the former Daily Show host for promoting South Africa while failing to call out the prevalent xenophobic misbehaviour. At the last count, the backlash has gone beyond mere criticism. Just like what Tyla faced with her world tour plan, South African artistes are reportedly losing out on performance opportunities across the continent as they face animosity from fellow Africans.

Opposition to Tyla’s proposed concert in Lagos was exemplified by controversial social media influencer, Martins Otse Vincent popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), who warned the organisers to back down or face disruption of the event. Speaking in a video he posted on his Facebook page, he insisted the  concert would not be allowed to happen and the South African singer would not be permitted to profit from Nigerians whom many of her compatriots have repeatedly victimised.

“There will be no Tyla concert in Nigeria. It is not happening. Not when Chidimma Adetshina is battling deportation in a South African  court. Now you want to bring in Tyla and sell tickets, so that Tyla will make money off the same Nigerians that South Africans hate so much,” VDM said, adding: “This is a warning, if you go ahead with that show, we will come to the venue and bring the show down.” He also noted, inter alia,  that Nigeria is already endowed with talented female artistes and allowing the Tyla show is tantamount to letting her come to take their jobs – an obvious reprise of one of the reasons South African xenophobes often cite, namely that immigrants come to their country to take their jobs.

Some other Nigerians, however, argued that artistes should not be held responsible for the ill-actions of political leaders and private individuals constituting xenophobic mobs. A Nigerian law firm, Damilare Adenola and Co. Lawpractice (DACO LP Africa) copiously plied such narrative. It urged that Tyla be allowed to perform in Lagos because outrage over xenophobic attacks should be directed at the South African and Nigerian governments and not the artiste. In a public statement by its Managing Partner, Damilare Adenola, the law firm said while anger over repeated attacks on Nigerians in South Africa is justified, holding an artiste responsible is not. This is more so as both Nigeria and South Africa are signatories to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights that guarantees freedom of expression and the right to work. (Note: South Africa is willfully unmindful of this charter.)

The law firm defended Tyla against the failings of her country’s government and her silence on xenophobic attacks. “No principle of law – domestic or international – establishes that a private citizen must issue a public statement condemning state violence as a precondition for exercising her economic rights,” it said, adding: “A person is not culpable for the acts of her government simply by virtue of sharing a nationality. To hold Tyla responsible for xenophobic violence she did not commit, endorse or encourage is to apply collective guilt – a standard that the very human rights framework invoked to protect Nigerians abroad explicitly prohibits.” 

“Xenophobia: It is tough action by government that will make self-help, like the objection to Tyla concert, needless”

According to the firm, a South African artiste performing in Nigeria shouldn’t be a provocation. “It is continental integration in practice. It is the African creative economy doing what governments have consistently failed to do: binding this continent together through culture.” It rather advocated intensified pressure on the South African government to prosecute perpetrators of xenophobic attacks and reform its policing system; and also accused the Nigerian government of failing to adequately protect its citizens abroad through “rigorous diplomatic engagement, bilateral protection frameworks and (pushing for) formal consequences at the level of the African Union where diplomacy fails.”

Another voice in defence of the Tyla concert proposal was that of political activist and presidential aspirant, Omoyele Sowore, who  argued that artistes should not be blamed for the actions of criminals or government failings. According to him, focus should rather be on holding political leaders accountable for not preventing xenophobic violence and protecting foreign nationals. In a post on X, Sowore added: “No-one should hold a talented musician like Tyla vicariously liable for the crimes of xenophobia. Artistes are not responsible for the failures of politicians except where there is ample evidence they’re enablers.”

For his part, Trevor Noah drew criticisms for being the face of a new tourism campaign promoting South Africa, which was launched by TBCSA in collaboration with Tourism Marketing South Africa (TOMSA) on 22nd July. The popular comedian, one of South Africa’s most iconic figures, was enlisted to help market the country to international travellers like he eminently did with a similar campaign in 2023. Only that this new promotion coincided with renewed xenophobic violence in South Africa and Noah’s fans are gutted that he failed to reference the menace as it could impact the safety of foreigners. Social media users argued that the campaign’s upbeat message overlooked present concerns about hostility towards foreign nationals and Noah was villainous for playing blind.

The new campaign is intended to be a lifeline for the South African tourism industry that is a major contributor to the country’s economy. But whereas it remains one of Africa’s leading tourist havens, recurring xenophobic violence has informed perceptions of South Africa as a hazardous destination for travellers. While tourism authorities bank on Noah’s campaign attracting more international visitors, critics cited fears over safety of foreigners as a countervailing factor. Commenters across Africa faulted the timing of the campaign and castigated Noah for promoting the country without addressing the elephant in the room, namely xenophobia.

Tyla and Noah, like every other artiste, are neither policy makers nor representatives of the South African state. They are universalists and culture ambassadors, and the question is whether they should bear blame for political misalignment of their narrow geographical affiliation. Not that political anger against culture agents is without possible explanation: people want accountability for societal experiences and where political leaders aren’t within answerable reach, marginal agents like artistes become fall guys. Besides, while celebrities should not be pressured into publicly taking political positions, it is important they know that as public figures, their voiced opinions on political issues matter.

Having said that, there is little the likes of Tyla and Noah can do about xenophobia in South Africa, which is systemic. South African opposition politician, Julius Malema, recently described the menace as “state-sponsored.” Speaking in a video posted by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Malema said: “I think we should agree that the violence is state-sponsored because the police accompany the people who are committing all these crimes, and the state broadcaster and mainstream media are giving them unlimited airtime to spread hate and incite violence. We’ve seen in many videos where people manhandled other people in the presence of the police, take them from one building to the other in the name of searching for drugs. Under South African law, that’s an assault, and police are duty-bound to intervene and make sure no civilian acts like a law enforcement officer.”

If South African authorities won’t rise up to their responsibility, the onus falls on Nigerian government to backlash harshly. Eminent lawyer and senior advocate, Femi Falana, last week advised measures based on the principle of reciprocity. “International diplomacy is about reciprocity. If they chase out Nigerians and destroy their businesses, Nigeria has a duty to act. South African companies here should be sanctioned where there are alternatives,” he said. It is tough action by government that will make self-help, like the objection to Tyla concert, needless.