Prof. Akosua Adomako Ampofo
PRESSURE IS mounting on authorities at the University of Ghana (UG) to remove the statue of India’s independence hero, Mahatma Gandhi, from the campus of the nation’s premier university.
A former Director of the Institute of African Studies at UG, Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo, started the campaign recently.
In a petition, Prof. Adomako Ampofo urged members of the UG Council to pull down the statue, claiming among other things, that Gandhi was a racist who hated black people and that honoring him is a wrong example for learners at the university.
The statue of Gandhi on UG campus
It would be recalled that on June 14, 2016, the statue of Gandhi was erected at the Sam Aboah quadrangle on the university campus.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that the erection of Gandhi’s statue dismayed some members of the university community who are aware of the apparent racist stand of Gandhi.
Racist Symbols
Prof. Adomako Ampofo argued that if UG sought to be a world class university, it should not be seen to be honouring former bastions of slavery, apartheid and white supremacy.
The former Director of the Institute of African Studies pointed out, “Rhodes University [in South Africa] established a renaming team to remove the name of Cecil Rhodes, former prime minister of the Cape colony, and one of the founders of apartheid.”
Prof Adomako Ampofo urged the University of Ghana Council to “do the honourable thing by pulling down the statue. It is better to stand up for our dignity than to kowtow to the wishes of a Third World upper-power.”
BY Melvin Tarlue