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Zohran Mamdani

10 things about Uganda‑born Democratic nominee for New York City mayor

ANALYSIS | SHERIFF BOJANG JNR | Born in Kampala, raised in Cape Town in post-apartheid South Africa and politically awakened in New York’s Queens, Zohran Kwame Mamdani’s journey to becoming the Democratic contender for mayor of the US’ largest city reads like a map of the modern diaspora.

In the latest chapter in a story that stretches from Kampala to Cape Town, from exile to electoral politics, Zohran Mamdani is on the cusp of making history as New York City’s first Muslim and Indian-American mayor after clinching the Democratic nomination for the 4 November election.

Zohran’s bid, however, to lead the world’s most diverse city is more than a personal milestone and his political rise is more than a New York story. It is a testament to the enduring reach of Africa’s postcolonial legacy.

“His win and life story reflects what’s possible in America and speaks to the beauty and legacy of diaspora journeys to this country,” says Semhar Araia, CEO of the Diaspora Academy in Washington. “For African and Asian diasporas, and children of immigrants especially, his journey and vision speaks to our own lived experiences navigating the realities of the United States with a global lens, and finding our truths in each other,” she tells The Africa Report.

As the son of an exiled Ugandan intellectual and an Indian-American filmmaker, the 33-year-old politician carries forward a powerful legacy shaped by Africa’s postcolonial struggles and the global South’s fight for justice.

Here are 10 things to understand Zohran Mamdani’s rise and how it is rooted in the long arc of African diaspora politics.

1. Early life

Born in Kampala on October 18, 1991, Zohran spent his early years in Uganda and South Africa before migrating to the U.S. at the age of seven. His family’s moves followed his father’s academic career, giving him a deeply international upbringing that bridges Africa, South Asia and the West.

2. Son of African and Indian intellectual royalty

His father is Mahmood Mamdani, a Ugandan-born political theorist and one of Africa’s most influential scholars on colonialism and postcolonial governance. His mother, Mira Nair, is an acclaimed Indian-American filmmaker best known for the Golden Lion-winning Monsoon Wedding, the Academy Award-nominated Hindi-language film Salaam Bombay!, and the 1991 romantic drama Mississippi Masala, starring a young Denzel Washington.

3. Shaped by a history of exile

Zohran was born five years after his father had returned to Kampala from exile in 1986. Two years earlier, Mahmood became stateless after the government of Milton Obote revoked his Ugandan citizenship, while he was attending a conference in Dakar, in response to his outspoken criticism of its policies. He was initially expelled in 1972 by Ugandan President Idi Amin due to his Indian ethnicity.

Mahmood carried the scars of rupture, experiences that shaped Zohran’s upbringing and gave him an intimate grasp of what it means to be politically homeless and how to resist it.

4. Inspired by father’s scholarship

From Dar es Salaam to Cape Town, Mahmood Mamdani’s career spanned universities and think tanks that played vital roles in shaping post-independence thought. He directed Uganda’s Centre for Basic Research and South Africa’s AC Jordan Chair of African Studies. This made Zohran’s upbringing a kind of roaming education in diasporic intellectualism, where ideas about justice, decolonisation and identity were household conversations. He’s now a professor of anthropology, political science and African studies at Columbia University

Sean Jacobs, a Cape Town-born professor of international affairs at The New School and founder of the media platform Africa Is a Country, noted on X that “some South Africans will want a piece of Zohran’s win,” given that he briefly attended school in Cape Town. But Jacobs added a cautionary note about the family’s history in South Africa, pointing out that Mahmood Mamdani—the reason they were in the country—“was essentially driven out by white faculty who couldn’t handle challenges to the Eurocentric curriculum or the idea of rethinking South Africa’s identity as an African country.”

A towering figure in African studies, Mahmood’s groundbreaking work Citizen and Subject reshaped the understanding of postcolonial despotism. He argued that Africa’s colonial legacy was not only racial but also institutional, leaving behind a “bifurcated state” that separated urban citizens from rural subjects.

5. The respect for Kwame Nkrumah

Zohran’s middle name, Kwame, pays homage to Kwame Nkrumah, the Ghanaian revolutionary and pan-Africanist. It’s a nod to the anti-colonial values instilled by his parents and a symbolic thread linking his politics to Africa’s freedom struggles.

In one of his first posts on X after clinching the Democratic nomination on Tuesday, he quoted Nelson Mandela: “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” The message, at once celebratory and defiant, paid homage to the anti-apartheid icon while signalling the political lineage Zohran claims.

6. Politics rooted in justice

Like his father, Zohran Mamdani views local politics through a global lens. As a New York State Assembly member, he championed tenant rights and clean energy. He also took firm stances on foreign policy, notably declaring that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested if he visits New York. That position echoes Mahmood’s critiques of militarised imperialism, from Palestine to post-9/11 Africa. Zohran’s campaign unapologetically links local justice with international solidarity.

7. Blending faith and politics

A practising Shia Muslim from the Ithna-Asheri tradition, Zohran Mamdani openly embraces his faith as part of his politics. In a political climate hostile to Muslims, he proudly affirms his faith. His Islam is never isolated from class, race or colonialism. Mahmood’s studies of religion and power, from Sudan to South Africa, resonate in Zohran’s framing of Islam as both a spiritual identity and a political site of resistance.

His campaign blends cultural symbolism and class struggle: his slogan “Roti and Roses” is a South Asian riff on the classic labour slogan “Bread and Roses.”

8. Advocate and rap producer

Before politics, Zohran worked as a housing counsellor, fighting evictions in New York City. He also dabbled in music production, even releasing hip-hop tracks under the name Mr. Cardamom. This creative streak reflects his mother’s artistic influence and his grounding in urban struggle.

9. Contradictions of identity

“In Uganda I was Indian, in India I was Muslim and in New York I was everything but a New Yorker,” Zohran once said. But instead of running from complexity, he embraces it, seeing intersectionality as a source of power, not confusion.

10. What his win will mean for African diaspora

If elected, Zohran would not only be New York’s first Muslim and first Indian-American mayor. He would be the first to carry the intellectual legacy of postcolonial Africa into the political heart of the West. According to analysts, his win would signal that young, bold, anti-imperialist diasporans are no longer outsiders, but architects of the future.

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Additional reporting by Julian Pecquet in Washington.

Source: The African Report

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