Who is Wole Soyinka? Nigerian Nobel laureate says US visa revoked after his ‘white version of Idi Amin’ remark on Trump

Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka has alleged that the United States revoked his non-resident visa after his recent comments on President Donald Trump. Wole Soyinka said he believed the rejection of his visa had little to do with him and was instead a product of the United States’ immigration policies. The Nobel laureate has been asked to reapply if he wished to enter the US again.

“It’s not about me, I’m not really interested in going back to the United States. But a principle is involved. Human beings deserve to be treated decently wherever they are,” he said, adding, “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.”

Wole Soyinka also said that it may also be because of his recent comments on Donald Trump when he called him the “white version of Idi Amin”. Idi Amin was a military officer and president of Uganda. Also known as the “Butcher of Uganda”, Idi Amin expelled all Asians from Uganda in 1972.

Who is Wole Soyinka?

Wole Soyinka, 91, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, becoming the first African to do so

Born on July 13, 1934 at Abeokuta, near Ibadan in western Nigeria, Wole Soyinka studied at a Government College in Ibadan and later continued at the University of Leeds, where, in 1973, he took his doctorate.

During his six years in England, he worked as a dramaturgist at London’s Royal Court Theatre from 1958 to 1959. In 1960, he received a Rockefeller bursary and returned to Nigeria to pursue studies in African drama.

According to the Nobel Committee, “He taught drama and literature at various universities in Ibadan, Lagos, and Ife, where, since 1975, he has been professor of comparative literature.”

In 1960, he founded the theatre group, “The 1960 Masks” and in 1964, the “Orisun Theatre Company”, in which he has produced his own plays and taken part as actor. He has periodically been visiting professor at the universities of Cambridge, Sheffield, and Yale.

During the Nigerian Civil War, Soyinka wrote an article calling for a ceasefire, which led to his arrest in 1967 on charges of conspiring with Biafran rebels. He was detained as a political prisoner for 22 months, until 1969.

Over his career, Soyinka has published around 20 works – including plays, novels, and poetry – written in English and known for their depth and linguistic richness.

The Nobel Committee says, “He wrote his first plays during his time in London, The Swamp Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel (a light comedy), which were performed at Ibadan in 1958 and 1959 and were published in 1963. Later, satirical comedies are The Trial of Brother Jero (performed in 1960, publ. 1963) with its sequel, Jero’s Metamorphosis (performed 1974, publ. 1973), A Dance of the Forests (performed 1960, publ.1963), Kongi’s Harvest (performed 1965, publ. 1967) and Madmen and Specialists (performed 1970, publ. 1971). Among Soyinka’s serious philosophic plays are (apart from “The Swamp Dwellers“) The Strong Breed (performed 1966, publ. 1963), The Road ( 1965) and Death and the King’s Horseman (performed 1976, publ. 1975). In The Bacchae of Euripides (1973), he has rewritten the Bacchae for the African stage and in Opera Wonyosi (performed 1977, publ. 1981), bases himself on John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera and Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera. Soyinka’s latest dramatic works are A Play of Giants (1984) and Requiem for a Futurologist (1985).”

Soyinka has written two novels, The Interpreters (1965), and Season of Anomy (1973).