By Kingston Magare 28.10.2025
Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has been banned from entering the US by President Donald Trump.
Prof. Soyinka is a known critic of the US often bombastic President Trump who cannot stomach criticism.
While speaking Tuesday at Kongi’s Harvest Gallery, Freedom Park, Lagos Island, Prof. Soyinka disclosed that he had been informed of the decision via a letter written to him by the US Consulate,
“It is necessary for me to hold this conference so that people in the United States who are expecting me for this event or that event do not waste their time.
“I have no visa; I am banned, obviously, from the United States. And if you want to see me, you know where to find me,” he said.
“I’m still looking into my past history… I don’t have any past criminal record or even a felony or misdemeanor to qualify for the revocation.”
“I’ve started looking back—have I ever misbehaved toward the United States of America? Do I have a history? Have I been convicted? Have I gone against the law anywhere?”
In Trump’s first term in office Soyinka stayed away from the US in line with his promise that he would tear up his green card if Trump won the election in 2016.
“The Trump debacle is a challenge; it is a call to preparedness and steadfastness. Installed and putative fascisms – secular, military or theocratic – will extract from this only the wrong lessons, batten down and ‘crack down’ in self-protection,” Soyinka doubled down his criticism of Trump.
The 91-year-old playwright behind “Death and the King’s Horseman” has taught and been awarded honours from top US universities including Harvard and Cornell.
Wole Soyinka...on the bad books of President Trump.