It’s been a month since the news and video footage of sickening xenophobic attacks led by South Africans towards African immigrants and foreigners living in the country made the rounds across social media. Amongst the victims were Nigerians whose businesses were burnt and destroyed as well as being attacked and killed by some ignorant South African nationals.

It was devastating to see and hear the ways in which Africans were being harmed in the hands of fellow Africans. It was general consensus that the attackers were clearly brainwashed into thinking that their economic and employment status was due to Africans from other countries taking their jobs.

The irony of this misplaced anger was taken to new heights when Nigerians across social media joined forces to attack South African rapper AKA after Nigerian rapper and singer Ycee led the charge in calling out South Africans for their xenophobia towards Nigerians which ended in him taking direct shots at AKA by pulling up some old tweets where he expressed his upset for the South African national football team losing to Nigeria’s national football team.

In his twitter rant, AKA said “This match was bigger than football. The biggest rivalry on the continent. Why do we always have to lose against Naija at EVERYTHING.” He also went on to say, “It’s a hard pill to swallow man. We keep losing to Nigeria in every way.”

Nigerian musicians such as Skales and Burna Boy joined in to call AKA out on a subtle Xenophobia that they feel they have witnessed in him. With all that said, Nigerians began to send AKA private messages threatening his life.

Now all of this is said to say, what is the difference between what was happening to Nigerians and other African foreigners in South Africa and how people responded to AKA online.

The mentality and sentiment is the same. If we know the problem is bigger than we the individual every day people working hard to make a living then why aren’t we all joining forces to use our voices, our money and our energy to fight back against the political and economical powers that be.

What was more disheartening than the actual attacks was also the way Nigerians were responding by targeting several South African franchise businesses such as retailer Shoprite and telecoms operator MTN.

It was reported that in the midst of an incident in Lekki a clash between police and protestors at a mall housing a Shoprite outlet, one person was left dead. In the midst of all of this Nigerian businesses were also being destroyed.

In the aftermath of all this disarray, we saw South African celebrities coming to the defence of rapper AKA by expressing how much the rapper loves and admires Nigeria. Even Nigerian rapper MI came to AKA’s defence and echoed the sentiments of the South African celebs in AKA’s affection for Nigeria.

With how high emotions were rising at the sight of the atrocious attacks, it’s easy to see how people can easily get carried away with the wave of the news and play into the narrative of spreading hate. While it’s easy to point fingers and direct followers to sharing in ones anger and frustration, it would have been a more powerful and effective time to use ones influence and star power to spread the message of unity to a large following.

This would have been a great opportunity to remind followers of the unifying power of music and the countless times it has brought nations together rather than further segregate.

Although there were a good number of celebs using their influence to educate people and their encourage the message of unity such as South African comedian Trevor Noah and Nigerian musicians Wizkid and Yemi Alade, there were many efforts to drown it out with ignorance like the way a South African fan replied negatively to Tiwa Savage’s decision to pull out of a concert she was billed to perform in South Africa as a result of what was happening.

While it is important for us to put our money and influence where our mouth is and our our foots down when it comes to injustice such as this. Especially when certain presidents and officials aren’t doing more than simply condemning the perpetrators and not seeing to the safety of their people personally, immediately and effectively.

Yes, we don’t have all the answers. However, we get better solutions when we join forces to work for the greater good. We see this done beautifully when we enjoy the amazing collaborations that have come out of Africa. From Davido and Mafikzolo’s “Tchelete”, to Wizkid x DJ Bucks x Maphorisa’s “Soweto Baby” and all the bangers in between, we have seen time and time again that we are better together.