A statue of Mahatma Gandhi has been removed from the University of Ghana after students said the Indian leader was “racist.”
The statue had been on the university’s campus since 2016 but was removed sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday, according to CNN.
The university’s council petitioned the government for the statue’s removal, and it was approved by Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, spokeswoman Stella Amoa told CNN on Friday.
The statue’s unveiling spawned almost immediate backlash from students and faculty who felt that the school should put up statues of African figures instead of Gandhi, whom they called “racist” for comments he made about Black South Africans.
“How will the historian teach and explain that Gandhi was uncharitable in his attitude towards the black race and see that we’re glorifying him by erecting a statue on our campus?” reads a Change.org petition from 2016.
Gandhi championed India’s independence from British colonial rule and was known throughout the world for his peaceful activism. He was killed in 1948.
Gandhi lived in South Africa for 21 years, and some of his writings were critical of Africa.
