Digital encounters and Pan-African tensions: Nigerians’ interpretation of the 2024 Bolt dispute

This study examines how Nigerians interpreted the 2024 Bolt dispute, a digitally mediated episode in which citizens of Nigeria and South Africa engaged in retaliatory ride-hailing bookings and cancellations across both countries. While the incident initially emerged through online exchanges and social media mobilisation, this study focuses on how it was interpreted in a more reflective, interactional context. Using a discursive psychology approach, focus group discussions were conducted with Nigerian youths to explore how participants constructed accounts of the incident, and made sense of it within broader Nigeria–South Africa tensions. The analysis identified three interrelated themes: moral reframing of retaliation, mutual victimhood and empathy, and collective identity consolidation and status assertion. Participants simultaneously justified retaliation, acknowledged harm, accounted for South Africans’ hardship, and used the incident to assert Nigerian identity and status. The findings show how digitally mediated incidents acquire meaning through social interaction and how such interpretations can sustain intergroup tensions. The study contributes to research on African intergroup relations by highlighting the role of everyday meaning-making practices in shaping perceptions of conflict and possibilities for cooperation. It also suggests the value of structured dialogue and digital governance initiatives for strengthening Pan-African cohesion and reducing intergroup tensions.