DAKAR: Ghana will move a statue of Mahatma Gandhi from its main university because of his “alleged past racist comments”, the foreign ministry said, while paying tribute to Gandhi’s role as a civil rights leader.

A group of lecturers and students began campaigning for the Indian nationalist leader’s statue to be removed shortly after it was installed at the university in June as a symbol of friendship between Ghana and India. They argue that Gandhi made comments that were racist about Africans and that statues on the Accra campus should be of African heroes.

In a statement late on Thursday, the ministry said it was concerned by the acrimony the campaign had generated.

“The government would therefore want to relocate the statue from the University of Ghana to ensure its safety and to avoid the controversy ... being a distraction (from) our strong ties of friendship,” it said.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2016