Nobel Laureate and literary icon, Professor Wole Soyinka, has opened up about the circumstances that led to the permanent cancellation of his United States visa, while also recalling two memorable encounters he once had with American authorities.
Speaking during a media interaction at Freedom Park, Lagos, on Tuesday, Soyinka explained that his travel permit was revoked after he failed to attend a reinterview requested by the U.S. Consulate.
According to him, he had earlier torn his American Green Card shortly after Donald Trump emerged as U.S. president, describing the action as a symbolic protest against Trump’s divisive policies. Following that, he began travelling to the United States with a B1/B2 visa.
He said he later received a letter from the U.S. Consulate inviting him to appear for a visa revalidation interview, but he chose to ignore it.
Then, on October 23, he got another letter asking him to come in so the visa could be officially stamped “cancelled permanently.”
“I received a message asking me to appear at the consulate for my visa to be marked as cancelled,” Soyinka said.
“I have decided not to go. It’s unnecessary. If they want to cancel it, they can go ahead. I have no business facilitating it.”
Despite the revocation, the Nobel Laureate said he bears no grudge against the U.S. government and would not retaliate.
“I will continue to welcome any American to my home if they have any reason to engage with me,” he added.
Soyinka went on to share two earlier incidents that had once put him at odds with American airport authorities, insisting they were harmless misunderstandings.
The first, he said, happened many years ago when he arrived in the U.S. from the United Kingdom during winter.
To keep himself warm, he ate chilli pepper before his flight and tucked some into his pocket. Upon arrival in America, airport officials found the pepper during a security check and fined him $25 for bringing in agricultural produce without declaration.
“The officials were simply doing their job,” Soyinka recalled with a smile. “It was an innocent mistake. I just forgot I had the pepper in my pocket.”
The second encounter occurred in the 1970s at Chicago Airport, where he got into a confrontation with an immigration officer who made a racist remark. The disagreement escalated, and police were called in to defuse the tension.
Soyinka said the situation was eventually calmed by the intervention of the late Chief Emeka Anyaoku, who later became Secretary-General of the Commonwealth.
Reflecting on both events, the professor said they were insignificant incidents that should not define his relationship with the United States.
“Those two minor experiences are not enough to label me a criminal,” he said.
“They were ordinary misunderstandings that anyone could have encountered.”
Soyinka concluded by reaffirming his commitment to justice, equality, and human dignity, principles he has long defended through his writings and activism.
“Silence in the face of prejudice,” he declared, “is the same as agreeing with it. You must always speak out against injustice no matter where it comes from.”