Mahatma Gandhi’s statue
which was unveiled in 2016 by India’s former President Pranab Mukherjee, was
removed after University of Ghana lecturers started off a petition in which
they cited passages written by Gandhi claiming that Indians were “infinitely superior”
to black Africans.
While Ghana’s government at
the time said the statue would be relocated, Lecturers and students told the
BBC that the statue, originally located at the University’s recreational
quadrangle, had been removed on Wednesday.
The online protest was one
of a number on university campuses in Africa and beyond, about the enduring symbols of the continent’s
colonial past. The head of language, literature and drama at the Institute of
African Studies, Obadele Kambon, said the removal was an issue of
“self-respect”.
The University confirmed
this, saying that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration was
responsible. Law student Nana Adoma Asare Adei said;
“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.”
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