The United States has revoked the visa of Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian writer who in 1986 became the first African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Speaking at an event at Kongi’s Harvest Gallery in Lagos on Tuesday, Soyinka said he received a letter from the US Consulate General in Lagos, dated October 23, requesting that he bring his passport for his visa to be “physically cancelled.” He described the correspondence as “a rather curious love letter” and added that he would not comply with the request.

“I have no visa. I am banned,” Soyinka told reporters later that day, saying he was “very content” with the revocation.

The US Embassy in Abuja told The Guardian that it could not comment on individual visa cases, citing confidentiality rules.

Both the The Guardian and Al Jazeera

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