Professor Wole Soyinka, 91, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, is a well-sought after global citizen. But even as a famous dramatist, he must have been caught unawares when the United States (US) on 23 October staged a real-life drama, revoking his visa.
Caught out in the Trumpian drama, the veteran of multiple national and international battles from the 1960s, seemed perplexed. Almost in a soliloquy, he said: “I’m still looking into my past history… I don’t have any past criminal record or even a felony or misdemeanour to qualify for the revocation. I’ve started looking back — have I ever misbehaved toward the United States of America? Do I have a history? Have I been convicted? Have I gone against the law anywhere?”
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What the intellectual giant might not have realised is that for the mainstream Make America Great Again, MAGA movement that today rules the US, holding the shield of a Nobel Laureate, does not matter. The average MAGA on the streets of US is not bordered about a Wole Soyinka (WS) or William Shakespeare (WS). For him, he has no inheritance in Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Toni Morrison or Ernest Hemingsway; that adventurer who was obsessed with The Old Man and The Sea and, warning ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls.’ What is the business of a street MAGA for whom the bell toils provided it is not in his country and, America is great again?
Soyinka is just one of the casualties of worldwide US visa revocation. For instance, 31-year old MAGA influencer, Charlie Kirk was on 10 September shot dead at an event in Utah Valley University. His murder sent shock waves across the US. That night, President Trump went on air saying: “Charlie inspired millions, and tonight, all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror.” “This is a dark moment for America.” This being the gospel truth, only heretics would differ.
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So, foreigners who disagree; committing such a grievous sin as saying Kirk was a racist, had their visas revoked. The US State Department mid-October, revoked visas of six such persons from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Paraguay, and South Africa. The American state claimed that the posts of these individuals on social media are: “offensive and contrary to US Values” and that the country has: “no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans…” It added that: “The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk.”
However, within the US itself, there is a push back against the possible deification of Kirk. This is by the movement against MAGA. The claim is that there are moves to turn his 14 October birthday into a commemorative day. The issue is that that is also the birthday of George Floyd, the African American symbol of the Black Lives Matter Movement who was born on 14 October, 1973, exactly twenty years before Kirk was born. Floyd had been murdered by a White police officer, Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis on 25 May, 2020. Chauvin, one of four police officers who had arrested Floyd over a complaint by a store clerk, had knelt on Flody’s neck and back for some nine minutes, asphyxiating him in the process even as the victim cried: “I can’t breathe.” Flody’s murder led to global protests including across the fifty states of the US, leading to one of the largest protests in US history. In some of the US states, curfews were imposed as violence erupted.
Insisting that Kirk is not their hero, this movement on Tuesday, 14 October held a birthday commemorative rally for Floyd under the theme: “October 14 is both their birthdays: Honour Floyd, Not Charlie Kirk.” The venue was under the gigantic statue of Harriet Tubman, the American abolitionist who helped free slaves. The statue is at the intersection of St Nicholas Avenue and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, in Harlem. Organisers said the choice of the venue was deliberate as they drew inspiration not just from Tubman, but also Douglass, a former slave who famously said: “The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppressed.”
This commemoration, with huge police presence, which held on what should have been Floyd’s 52nd birthday, addressed various themes. These ranged from the state of African Americans and Latinos, especially Puerto Ricans in US, the 63-year US blockage of Cuba, the current deployment of American warships off the Venezuelan coast, and the Palestinian quest for independence.
The organisers said: “The Palestinians taught us how to protest; they taught us how to handle teargas.” In this, they made a link between what they termed: “The uprising against the murder of Floyd and the uprising against genocide in the Palestine.” In explaining their fight for Palestinian freedom, they quoted African Liberation fighter, Nelson Mandela who said: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
A central theme in the speeches was the issue of troops in the streets of some states which they viewed as an attempt to intimidate people into silence. A pointed slogan, which was also on various placards was: “ICE/Troops: Out of our cities!”
A protester walked to the microphone and said with reference to Charlie Kirk: “When we say George Floyd, they say no, we want to give you a hero of our own.”
Another added: “They want to bring things back to the pre-Trump era. But we don’t want to go back, we want to go forward. There must be resistance from the oppressed; from the streets.”
The Jazz Against Genocide group said it wants to reclaim the African American music genre from those it claimed, are using it to raise funds in the US and sending them to Israel in furtherance of the genocide against the Palestinians.
In-between the speeches, there were shouts: “Say his name! George Floyd!! Justice for George Floyd!!!”
Another slogan repeated was: “When fascism attacks, stand up, fight back!”
As the rally was winding up, an organiser reminded participants of the admonition by Kwame Toure, the African-American civil rights leader who had made the ‘Black Power’ salute famous. Toure, who changed his name from Stokely Carmichael had said, if you struggle for justice, you can never lose. Even if you die, you cannot lose.
In concluding the rally, participants made the following pledge which are the words of Assata Shakur who passed on in Cuba on 25 September: “ It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.
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