Soyinka’s U.S. Visa Cancelled After Calling Trump “White Idi Amin”

According to Soyinka, the U.S. Consulate in Lagos informed him that his B1/B2 visa, issued in April 2024, was “no longer valid” and demanded its physical return for cancellation, citing “additional information” uncovered since issuance. “I am evidently locked out of the United States,” Soyinka said, reading the letter aloud to an amused audience. “I like people with a sense of humor,” he quipped, before adding that he had no plans to travel there again.

Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature, was the first African to receive the award. His works, spanning plays, essays, and memoirs, have relentlessly documented Nigeria’s descent into military rule and corruption. Having fled the country under General Sani Abacha’s dictatorship, Soyinka lived in exile in the United States, where he held academic positions and retained permanent residency.

In 2016, after Donald Trump’s election victory, Soyinka cut up his U.S. Green Card in protest, calling it a symbolic act against rising intolerance. Now, years later, Washington has returned the favor. The writer believes the cancellation is linked to his past remark describing Trump as a “White Idi Amin” — a comparison to Uganda’s notorious military ruler known for brutality and paranoia.

“I thought Trump would be proud to be called a first-class dictator,” Soyinka joked. Yet, beneath the humor lies his enduring critique of power unchecked. “Perhaps Trump is just a modern-day Heraclitus,” he mused, “tearing down everything that exists, including unexpired visas.”

Soyinka said he would turn the episode into inspiration for a new play about Trump’s politics, adding with irony, “Maybe then they’ll give me my visa back.”