Prof. Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate and globally acclaimed literary figure, has revealed that his United States visa was permanently revoked by American authorities. The announcement was made during a media briefing at Freedom Park in Lagos on Tuesday, October 28, 2025. According to Soyinka, the revocation followed his decision to ignore a reinterview request from the U.S. Consulate, which sought to revalidate his B1/B2 visa.
In a candid explanation, Soyinka disclosed that he had previously torn up his American green card shortly after Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential victory, viewing it as a personal protest against what he considered divisive and discriminatory governance. Since then, he had traveled to the U.S. using the B1/B2 visa category. The U.S. Consulate invited him for a visa revalidation interview, scheduled for September 11—a date Soyinka found symbolically inappropriate and thus refused to attend. On October 23, 2025, Soyinka received official notification that his visa had been permanently cancelled. He declined to visit the consulate for the cancellation process, stating, “If they wish to cancel it, that is their business. I will not go there to help them do it.”
Despite the diplomatic setback, Soyinka emphasized no personal animosity towards the American people, affirming his open-door stance towards legitimate American visitors to his home in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Reflecting on two minor past encounters with U.S. authorities—one involving an undeclared chili pepper at an airport and another concerning a racial confrontation in the 1970s—he dismissed these as inconsequential misunderstandings that do not constitute a criminal record.
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Soyinka criticized the political shift under the Trump administration for souring what had been many years of cordial relations with the U.S., underscoring his long-standing opposition to injustice and discrimination worldwide. He concluded the briefing with a call to action against prejudice, stating, “Silence in the face of prejudice is as dangerous as the act itself.”
This development has attracted widespread attention given Soyinka’s stature as a global intellectual and advocate for human rights, highlighting broader concerns about diplomatic tensions and immigration policies affecting Nigerians and international travelers alike
