Renowned Nigerian author and Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka has announced that his US visa has been revoked, effectively banning him from the country. The 91-year-old literary giant, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, shared this news during a press conference, describing the US consulate’s request for his passport as a “rather curious love letter.” He has advised organizations wishing to invite him to the US to save themselves the trouble.
Soyinka, a frequent visitor to US universities for teaching engagements over the past three decades, revealed his status as “banned” during the conference. He has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, and he suggested that his recent comparison of President Trump to Uganda’s former dictator Idi Amin – calling Trump “Idi Amin in white face” – might have contributed to this development.
The Nobel laureate previously held permanent residency in the United States but renounced it in 2016 as a protest against Trump’s election. He humorously recounted how he had cut up his green card, stating it “got cut into a couple of pieces.”
The US embassy in Nigeria has declined to comment on individual visa cases. This development follows broader changes announced by the US State Department in July, which reduced the visa validity period for citizens of Nigeria and several other African nations to three months, a significant reduction from the previous multi-year, multiple-entry visas.