Al Jazeera - The United States government has revoked the visa of Nigerian writer and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, in what appears to be part of a broader crackdown by President Donald Trump’s administration on foreign figures deemed critical of US policies.
Speaking on Tuesday at Kongi’s Harvest Gallery in Lagos, Soyinka read from an official notice he received from the US Consulate on October 23, 2025, instructing him to return his passport for “physical cancellation.”
“We request you bring your visa to the US Consulate General Lagos for physical cancellation,” the letter read in part.
With characteristic humour, the 91-year-old playwright told his audience, “I like people who have a sense of humour, and this is one of the most humorous requests I’ve ever had. Would anyone like to volunteer to take my passport there? I’m rather busy.”
Soyinka, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, said the revocation would affect his ability to attend upcoming literary and cultural events in the US but noted that he remains unfazed.
“I am very content with the revocation of my visa,” he said. “Maybe it’s about time to write a play about Donald Trump.”
The decision follows similar cases involving other Nobel Prize winners, including Oscar Arias, the former president of Costa Rica and 1987 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, whose visa was also cancelled earlier this year.
Arias said US officials suggested it was due to his past diplomatic ties with China, though he suspected his criticism of Trump may have played a role.
Since returning to office in January 2025, President Trump’s administration has implemented a sweeping immigration policy aimed at individuals it accuses of harbouring “hostile attitudes” toward US culture and government. The policy has resulted in the withdrawal of several visas and green cards from international figures, including foreign officials and activists critical of Washington.
Soyinka, known globally for his fierce criticism of political repression and corruption, has often spoken out against Trump’s leadership.
In 2017, following Trump’s first election, he famously destroyed his US green card in protest, saying he no longer wished to be associated with a country led by someone who treated immigrants “brutally and cruelly.”
During Tuesday’s remarks, Soyinka reaffirmed his decision: “Unfortunately, when I was looking at my green card, it fell between the fingers of a pair of scissors,” he joked.
Despite the revocation, the celebrated author — whose literary works include The Man Died, Death and the King’s Horseman, and Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth — said he continues to maintain friendships in the US and has no ill feelings toward local consular staff.
Human rights groups have criticised the Trump administration’s approach as politically vindictive.
The Economists for Peace and Security, a UN-accredited nonprofit, condemned the earlier cancellation of Arias’s visa, warning that punishing dissenting voices undermines democratic principles and international cooperation.
Soyinka himself questioned the rationale behind such actions: “Governments have a way of papering things for their own survival. But the revocation of one visa, ten visas, or a thousand visas will not affect the national interests of any astute leader.”
The US government has not issued an official statement explaining the reason for Soyinka’s visa cancellation.