The University of Ghana has taken down the statue of India’s independence leader, Mahatma Gandhi, erected at the recreational quadrangle of the university.
Some students and lecturers of the University of Ghana had called for the removal of the statue, because of what they said was Gandhi’s “racist identity”.
An online petition launched in 2016 received public support with over 2,000 signatures.
This was after some students had earlier defaced the statue in a protest.
On Wednesday, December 12, 2018, on the University of Ghana Campus, some men in the company of the university security, were seen demolishing the statue of the civil rights leader which was placed right behind the Balme Library.
“We received an order from above and we can’t tell you why it is being taken down’, a University of Ghana official is reported to have told the campus radio station, Radio Univers on Wednesday morning.
The statue was ‘donated’ to the University of Ghana by the Indian President Prenab Mukherjee in 2016.
The hashtag #GandhiMustFall trended on social media in Ghana and in South Africa simultaneously, after the unveiling of the statue by then Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Ernest Aryeetey and the Indian President.
However, some Gandhi defenders argued that his actions and work for humanity should outweigh his words and some comments he made against blacks in the past.
