Nigerian Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinka said on Tuesday that the United States has revoked his non-immigrant visa, less than a year after it was issued, and that he has been asked to reapply if he wishes to travel again.
Soyinka, 91, told reporters in Lagos that he received a formal letter from the U.S. Consulate General requesting that he submit his passport for the physical cancellation of the visa.
The letter, dated October 23, cited that “additional information became available” after the visa had been granted.
“I have no visa. I am banned, obviously, from the United States,” Soyinka said. “If you want to see me, you know where to find me,” he added, referring to anyone who might plan to invite him to American events.
The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria has not commented on the matter.
Soyinka, one of Africa’s most celebrated writers and the first African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, has long maintained academic and cultural ties with the U.S., having taught at several Ivy League universities since the mid-1990s.
In 2016, he announced that he had torn up his U.S. green card and renounced his American residency in protest over the election of Donald Trump, calling it an act of personal conviction against what he described as “xenophobia and bigotry.”
The visa cancellation comes amid tighter U.S. entry policies for Nigerians. In July, the U.S. Embassy said it would issue only single-entry, three-month non-immigrant visas to Nigerian citizens, replacing the previous system that allowed up to five-year, multiple-entry permits.
Soyinka did not disclose whether he planned to appeal the decision, but the incident marks a fresh diplomatic wrinkle in his decades-long relationship with the United States.
Source: Reuters
Written By Rodney Mbua
