Polite Insistence on Truth

Any freedom fighter who achieves canonisation by the greatest oppressor of their time should arguably be treated with caution, and the University of Ghana has accordingly taken down a statue of the revered mediaeval preacher Mohandas K Gandhi. Unveiled two years ago, the graven image has caused some controversy because of the views expressed by its subject during the South African phase of his career: Gandhi's problem with the British régime was not that non-whites were being mistreated, but that Indians were being treated like blacks. This may not put Gandhi in quite the same league of African heroism as Cecil Rhodes, but the students and faculty at the University of Ghana have expressed discontent, and the management has applied a healthy dose of post-colonial discretion by sneaking out to the plinth and removing the statue in the middle of the night.