Washington has revoked the U.S. visa of Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel laureate, effectively barring him from entering the country, the author announced at a press conference in Lagos on Tuesday. The U.S. consulate notified Soyinka on October 23, instructing him to surrender his visa for cancellation, citing “additional information” that had emerged since the permit was originally issued.
“I have no visa, I am banned obviously from the United States,” Soyinka said. The 91-year-old writer described the consulate’s letter as “a rather curious love letter” and “one of the most humorous requests” he has ever received.
The revocation comes amid the Trump administration’s tightened immigration policies following his return to the White House in January 2025. In July, the State Department introduced changes to the “reciprocal non-immigrant visa policy,” reducing visa durations and imposing stricter entry requirements for travelers from several countries, including Nigeria.
Soyinka, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, has been a regular visiting professor at major U.S. institutions such as Harvard and Yale. His acclaimed works include the prison memoir The Man Died and the novel Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth. He previously held U.S. permanent residency but renounced his green card in protest of Trump’s 2016 election.
Last month, Soyinka declined a visa re-interview request from the consulate and referred to Trump as “Idi Amin in white face,” a comparison to the notorious Ugandan dictator. He acknowledged during the press conference that the comment may have contributed to the visa revocation, noting, “When I called Donald Trump Idi Amin I thought I was paying him a compliment.”
The incident highlights the continuing impact of U.S. immigration policy changes on prominent foreign figures and adds to Soyinka’s long history of outspoken criticism of authoritarian governance.
