In a development echoing the dramatic conviction of his literary legacy, Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka revealed on Tuesday that U.S. authorities have permanently revoked his visa, marking the end of a decades-long relationship with a country he once called his second home.
Speaking during an intimate session at Freedom Park, Lagos, the playwright calmly disclosed that the revocation followed his refusal to attend a re-interview requested by the U.S. Consulate, a bureaucratic demand he chose to meet with characteristic defiance.
For Soyinka, this is not a punishment but a consequence of principle. The act closes a chapter that began in 2016, when he famously destroyed his American green card in protest after Donald Trump’s election, denouncing what he described as a rise in “divisive and discriminatory leadership.”
He emphasized that his decision was never about convenience but conscience. By declining the re-interview, Soyinka reinforced his long-held philosophy, that dignity must never bow to protocol.
The symbolism of Freedom Park, once a colonial prison, underscored the moment perfectly: a man of letters still refusing confinement, whether political or procedural.
For the world-renowned writer, who has spent a lifetime using his voice to hold power to account, this episode serves as another chapter in a long biography of dissent. It reinforces his legacy as a man who would rather be barred from a superpower than bend to its protocols, a man of unwavering conviction, accountable first and foremost to his own conscience.
