A statute of India's national hero, Mahatma Gandhi, has been removed from a university campus in Ghana after it was decided by the institution that the icon of resistance to British colonialism was in fact a "racist."
Lecturers at the University of Ghana began an online campaign after a giant bust of the leader was erected on the campus in 2016. The group of academics argue that Gandhi had a "racist identity" and regularly referred to native Africans as "savages" and "Kaffirs," a pejorative term used to refer to black Africans.
anyone whose studied #Gandhi in detail has known this. At the end of the day, Gandhi spent over half of his life serving the British. https://t.co/mIIZBHQtVd
— iSiyasah (@iSiyasah) 14 December 2018
The petition, which has so far received well over 2,200 signatures will be relocated to another area in Ghana, according to the country's government.
A Law student from the university has been cited by the BBC new as saying that, "Having his statue means that we stand for everything he stands for and if he stands for these things [alleged racism], I don't think we should have his statue on campus."
READ NOW: WATCH Protesters Topple Confederate Monument at University of North Carolina
Some might find the move odd, considering that Gandhi is often revered around the world for his almost pious dedication to and popularisation of nonviolent resistance to British colonial rule in India, which eventually led to independence in 1947 when the UK parliament passed the ‘Indian Independence Act.'
Sad to learn #Gandhi was a racist. Even the best of humanity is imperfect and deeply flawed. https://t.co/udiFP9S4AH
— Mark Wayne (@orwell4ever) 14 December 2018
The academics who launched the petition also argue that, "If there should be statues on our campus, then, first and foremost, they should be of African heroes and heroines, who can serve as examples of who we are and what we have achieved as a people."
Yet, Ghana is far from the only country where angry motley crews of academics and students have demanded that the statues of historical figures deemed unsavoury be removed — in fact, it is becoming somewhat of a nascent trend.
Was #Gandhi racist? https://t.co/VZzBETGQLk pic.twitter.com/nu1HrSu4LT
— The Week UK (@TheWeekUK) 14 December 2018
In August 2016, Yale university began the process of removing stained glass windows that depicted enslaved Africans. On top of that, the world class institution has renamed one of its most famous schools from ‘Calhoun College' — named after John C Calhoun, a 19th-century vice president who endorsed the African slave trade — to ‘Hopper College,' after a particularly successful female computer scientist.
So #Gandhi I hear you’re a racist now
— Jack O’Meara (@JackOMeara12) 14 December 2018
Rhodes University in South Africa also considered a rebrand as its name is taken from Cecil Rhodes, a former Prime Minister of the country who is widely credited as being one of the founding fathers of the apartheid system that ghettoised black citizens throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Ultimately however, the university's council voted against the move.
Who was the real #Gandhi, the one we were taught in schools or the one whose character has been kept under secret as it did not play to the #Nehruvian story? No one really knows Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi!
— Kossireddi (@kossireddi) 10 December 2018
