In the run up to the 2016 presidential election, a number of prominent liberals threatened to leave the country if President-elect Donald Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Since Nov. 8, a few have recanted their threats, saying they were only “made in jest.” Most have ignored their statements altogether. But one has actually followed through.
Wole Soyinka, the 1986 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, a native of Nigeria, fulfilled his promise by cutting up his green card—which gives him permanent residency status—and disavowed any affiliation with the U.S. The poet has taught at Harvard and Yale and just finished a residency at New York University.
He is quoted by a French news agency as saying:
“I have already done it, I have disengaged … I had a horror of what is to come with Trump … I threw away the card, and I have relocated, and I’m back to where I have always been.”
Still, Soyinka is not recommending his fellow Nigerian immigrants follow suit, saying there are many advantages to living in the U.S. He would not want his fellow countrymen to be discouraged from seeking permanent residency in America, but he has “had enough.” {eoa}
