Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian author Wole Soyinka has confirmed that his non-immigrant visa for the United States, issued last year, has been revoked.
The 91-year-old stated he was advised to re-apply if he wished to visit the US again.
This follows the writer’s 2016 protest against the initial election of President Donald Trump, when he tore up his US green card and renounced his American residency.
Despite this, the Nobel laureate has maintained regular teaching positions at America’s Ivy League universities since the mid-1990s, following his 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature.
On Tuesday, Soyinka showed reporters a copy of a letter from the U.S. Consulate General in Lagos asking him to bring his passport for physical cancellation of the visa.
The letter, dated October 23, said “additional information became available” after the visa was issued.
The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“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, referring to people who planned to invite him to events in the U.S.
The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria said in July that Nigerians seeking to travel to the U.S. on non-immigrant visas would now receive single-entry three-month permits, rolling back the up to five-year, multiple-entry visas they had enjoyed previously.
