Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate, has fulfilled his pledge to destroy his green card over the victory of Donald Trump in the American presidential election.
Soyinka, a scholar-in-residence at New York University’s Institute of African American Affairs, had vowed to give up his permanent US residency over Trump’s promise to get tough on immigration.
“If in the unlikely event he does win, the first thing he’ll do is to say [that] all green-card holders must reapply to come back into the US. Well, I’m not waiting for that,” he had said.
“The moment they announce his victory, I will cut my green card myself and start packing up.”
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After Trump was declared president-elect, the comment started gaining traction, with many, particularly on social media, asking the scholar to match his words with action.
But speaking at a conference in South Africa, the internationally-acclaimed playwright and poet said he had thrown away the green card and returned to where he had always been.
“I have already done it; I have disengaged (from the United States). I have done what I said I would do,” he reportedly said.
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“I had a horror of what is to come with Trump… I threw away the (green) card, and I have relocated, and I’m back to where I have always been.”
4 comments
Prof. Where is the proof. You said you will tear the green card now you are claiming that you threw it away. OBJ tore his PDP card in full view of television cameras.
Anyway where was it that you threw the card? I will go in search of it. If I find it I will colour my hair grey and grow beards which I will also colour grey then I will proceed to God’s Own Country to take your place. You can stay back in Abeokuta to enjoy your palm wine with bushmeat. This Buhari regime has made things very unbearable for ordinary persons like me.
So Prof., what is the moral here? USA has just moved to the right from left, what they’ve always use to balance their society and you consider that wrong?! What does your action really teach people who look upon you? This is a questionable display of your understanding of politics and how the social nature of people shape things; and a great disrespect of the American people and their choice.
I am fond of Prof.
But there seems to be quite a dramatic schedule over this issue. The Americans eventually almost always come to do the right thing – paraphrasing Churchill – anyway.
The US is somewhat optimized in many ways, for long-term balance.
You see, the current political dispensation Will ride out. I would rather his studied perspective on the flaws of Trumpism, than a largely positive symbol of the great American experiment…be cast in an irrelevant light…
Still, I am fond of Prof.
Eye service,of what benefit is it to Nigerians. Go siddon abeg