In 2016 the University of Legon in Ghana removed of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi. This was provoked by a statements made by the young Gandhi soon after he arrived in South Africa in 1893. These statements, plucked from the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi – published by the Indian government without any attempts at contextualising or annotating them – completely distort what his life represents.

Gandhi said, “My life is my message”. His life shows how an ordinary human being who has many weaknesses can rise to great heights by shedding his early prejudices and by adhering to love and non-violence instead of hate and greed. He never disregarded these weakness and used derogatory names for black people. There is much documented evidence of this. Gandhi was a racist until his death not a man of peace.