DAKAR, Senegal — Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinka said Tuesday that his non-resident visa to enter the United States has been rejected, adding that he believes it may be because he has recently criticized US President Donald Trump.
The 91-year-old Nigerian writer won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, becoming the first African to receive the title.
Speaking to the press on Tuesday, Soyinka said he believed it had nothing to do with him and was a product of United States immigration policy. He said he was told to reapply if he wanted to enroll again.
“It’s not about me, I’m not very interested in returning to the United States,” he said. “But the principle is important here. People deserve to be treated with dignity, wherever they are.”
Soyinka, who taught in the US and previously had a green card, joked on Tuesday that his green card “met an accident” eight years ago and “fell between a pair of scissors.” In 2017, he destroyed his green card to protest President Trump's first inauguration.
The letter he received informing him that his visa had been revoked mentioned “additional information that became available after the visa was issued” as the reason for its revocation, but did not describe what that information was.
Soyinka believes this may be because he recently called Trump “the white version of Idi Amin,” referring to the dictator who ruled Uganda from 1971 to 1979.
The U.S. consulate in Nigeria's commercial hub of Lagos referred all questions to the State Department press office in Washington, D.C., which did not respond to immediate requests for comment.
Soyinka jokingly called it a “love letter” and said that while he doesn't blame officials, he won't be applying for another visa.
“I don't have a visa. I'm obviously not allowed into the US, and if you want to see me, you know where to find me.”
