Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has thrown away his United States residency green card.
Shortly before the United States presidential election, Prof. Soyinka had vowed to give up his permanent US residency over a Donald Trump victory to protest against the Republican billionaireâs campaign promises to get tough on immigration.
âI have already done it. I have disengaged (from the United States). I have done what I said I would do,â the 82-year-old told AFP on the sidelines of an education conference at the University of Johannesburg.
Wole Soyinka
âI had a horror of what is to come with Trump⌠I threw away the (green) card, and I have relocated, and Iâm back to where I have always beenâ â meaning his homeland Nigeria.
Soyinka, rights activist, playwright, novelist and poet won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986 and has been a regular teacher at US universities, including Harvard, Cornell and Yale.
At the same time, he said he would not discourage others from applying for a green card.
âItâs useful in many ways. I wouldnât for one single moment discourage any Nigerian or anybody from acquiring a green card⌠but I have had enough of it,â he said.
Soyinka, a rights activists, was jailed in 1967 for 22 months during Nigeriaâs civil war.
He was reported to have recently completed a term as scholar-in-residence at New York Universityâs Institute of African American Affairs.
Obtaining the U.S. Permanent Resident Card, otherwise known as âGreen Cardâ, confers on the holder equal rights with the U.S. citizens to have access to service and immigration benefits, including permission to reside and take employment in America.
Valuable document, you say? Well, that is the document the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has just thrown into the trash bin. The foremost playwright has just made good his threat to tear up the âvaluable documentâ to protest Mr. Donald Trumpâs election as U.S. President.
Although, the poet did not openly declare support for candidates of the two major parties in the election, Soyinkaâs personal grudge for Mr. Trump stemmed from the latterâs uncharitable racial comments to spite black folks and Hispanics.
âThe moment they announce his (Mr. Trumpâs) victory, I will cut my green card myself and start packing up,â Soyinka said on November 2.
After Mr. Trump was announced winner of the election, some young Nigerians on social media went vociferous in reminding the Nobel Laureate of his âAugust Promiseâ. Soyinka responded, asking the youths to go back to school. He described those urging him to tear up his Green Card as ânoisome creatures, the nattering nit-wits of Internetâ.
Soyinka said the youths were ignorant of his antecedent, saying their ignorant comments made him feel embarrassed for âoccupying the same national spaceâ as them.
