Daily US Times: A statue Mahatma Gandhi, the famed Indian independence leader, has been removed from a university campus in Ghana’s capital, Accra.
Shortly after the statue was unveiled in 2016 by India’s former President Pranab Mukherjee, the University of Ghana lecturers began a petition for its removal.
The petition said Gandhi was “racist” and African heroes should be put first.
Students and lecturers from the university told that the statue had been removed on Wednesday. It was originally located at the university’s recreational quadrangle.
The university confirmed this, saying that the Regional Integration and Ministry of Foreign Affairs was responsible.
Nana Adoma Asare Adei, a law student of the university told: “Having his statue means that we stand for everything he stands for and if he stands for these things [his alleged racism], I don’t think we should have his statue on campus.”
Mahatma Gandhi was one of the most celebrated figures of the 20th Century and is best known for leading non-violent resistance to British colonial rule in India.
In his youth, he lived and worked in South Africa, and although he has inspired people throughout the world his comments on black Africans have been controversial.
He referred to black South Africans as “kaffirs” in his early writings. The word is a highly offensive racist slur. He also said that Indians were “infinitely superior” to black people.
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