A statue of former Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi has been pulled down in a Ghanaian University.
The statue was unveiled in June 2016 by the President of India Pranab Mukherjee at the University of Ghana campus in the capital Accra.
It was to be seen as a symbol of the close friendship between Ghana and India.
The statue however became a centre of controversy after a group of professors in the University called for it’s removal.
In a petition signed by more than 1,000 people for the removal of the statue petitioners said Gandhi was racist.
“It is better to stand up for our dignity than to kowtow to the wishes of a burgeoning Eurasian superpower,” said the petition with quotes passages written by Gandhi which say Indians are “infinitely superior” to black Africans.
Accra based radio station Radio Universe reports that the removal of the statue was carried out by men, in the company of university security who say they had “received an order from above” to pull down the edifice.
Statues on university campuses have recently provoked rancorous arguments in Africa as students wrestle with the legacy of colonialism and history of racism on the continent.
Last year students in South Africa successfully campaigned for the removal, from the University of Cape Town campus, a statue of Cecil Rhodes, a notoriously racist mining magnate who died in 1902.
A statue of Gandhi in the centre of Johannesburg not far from the office where he worked as a lawyer, triggered a similar row in 2003.
Source: Africafeeds.com
