Nobel Laureate Soyinka says US visa revoked after criticizing Trump

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
29 Oct 2025 08:32

Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka says his US visa was revoked after calling President Trump a “dictator.”

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Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka speaks to The Associated Press during an interview at Freedom Park in Lagos, Nigeria, on October 28, 2021. (AP)

Nigerian Nobel laureate and playwright Wole Soyinka said on Tuesday that his United States visa has been revoked by US President Donald Trump's administration following a series of public criticisms of the US president, including a recent comparison to Uganda’s former dictator Idi Amin.

At a news conference in Lagos, the 91-year-old literary icon revealed that he had received an official letter from the US consulate notifying him that his visa had been canceled under State Department provisions allowing consular officers to revoke visas “at any time,” in their “discretion.”

“I want to assure the consulate that I’m very content with the revocation of my visa,” Soyinka said, describing the letter as a “rather curious love letter from an embassy.”

He added, “I have no visa. I am banned.”

Criticism of Trump and visa reassessment

Soyinka speculated that his recent remarks comparing Trump to Idi Amin may have influenced the decision.

“Idi Amin was a man of international stature, a statesman, so when I called Donald Trump Idi Amin, I thought I was paying him a compliment,” he said wryly.

“He’s been behaving like a dictator,” Soyinka said about Trump

The Nobel Prize-winning author of Death and the King’s Horseman and Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth has been a longstanding critic of Trump. He previously destroyed his US green card in 2016 after Trump’s first election victory, saying he would no longer seek residency in a country “that had chosen such leadership.”

Earlier this year, Soyinka said the US consulate in Lagos had summoned him for an interview to reassess his visa, an appointment he refused to attend.

Part of wider immigration clampdown

The US embassy in Abuja declined to comment on the case, according to The Guardian, citing confidentiality rules.

The visa revocation fits into Washington’s broader immigration crackdown, which has increasingly targeted activists, journalists, and students outspoken on issues such as Palestinian rights. The administration has also intensified deportations and street-level raids, deploying National Guard units and restricting legal entry channels.

“This is not about me,” Soyinka said. “When we see people being picked off the street – people being hauled up and they disappear for a month … old women, children being separated. So that’s really what concerns me.”

Legacy and future stance

Soyinka, who has taught at Harvard and Cornell Universities, remains one of Africa’s most celebrated intellectuals. His works, blending political satire and human rights advocacy, have earned him global acclaim.

While he said he would not seek to return to the United States, he left open the possibility of visiting again if circumstances change. “I wouldn’t take the initiative myself because there’s nothing I’m looking for there. Nothing.”