Campaign to remove Gandhi statue at Ghana uni

(22 Sep 2016) Professors at a university in Ghana's capital are campaigning for the removal of a new statue of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi.
The petition, delivered on Thursday to the University of Ghana's governing council, takes issue with what the professors call Gandhi's "racist identity" and controversial references to Africans in his writings.
Launched online on September 12, the petition has garnered more than 1,250 signatures.
India's President Pranab Mukherjee unveiled the statue at the centre of the campus during a visit to Ghana in June.
Gandhi, a lawyer, travelled to South Africa in 1893 and stayed for two decades, fighting to expand rights for Indians there.
The petition quotes writings from that period in which Gandhi refers to black South Africans as savages.
"The fact that we erected the statue means we're not clear on Indian history and how it relates to African people," said Obadele Kambon, one of the petition's organizers. "How are students supposed to look up to Gandhi, a man who said we are only one degree removed from animals?"
A university spokesperson said she wasn't aware of the University Council having yet received the petition.



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