Statue of Mahatma Gandhi removed from University of Ghana

Accra: Statue of Mahatma Gandhi has been removed from the University of Ghana following the complaints that he was racists against 'black Africans'.

The statue was removed on December 11 after protests from students and faculty.

The lecturers soon began a petition calling for its removal, citing passages written by Gandhi claiming that Indians were infinitely superior to black Africans.

One of Gandhi's writings cited in the petition read, "Ours is one continual struggle against a degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir whose occupation is hunting, and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with and, then, pass his life in indolence and nakedness."

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Obadele Kambon, head of language, literature and drama at the Institute of African Studies, said, ''The removal was an issue of self-respect".

The university authorities, however, refused to comment while an official at Ghana's foreign affairs ministry said, "It's an internal decision by the university."

It is to be mentioned that two years ago, the statue of Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled by former President Pranab Mukherjee in University of Ghana in Accra as a symbol of ties between the two nations.

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Born on October 2, 1869, Mahatma Gandhi lived and worked as a lawyer in SA from 1893 to 1915.