Zohran Mamdani Visits Uganda

Not many young United States (US) of America politicians have recently attracted as much limelight as has 33-year-old Mr. Zohran Kwame Mamdani.

The New Yorker and Queens resident assemblyman hit the US and international spotlight last month, when he won the Democratic Party primaries to stand for mayor of New York in November, later in the year.

Now, coming visiting Uganda, Mamdani is back in the country to celebrate his marriage to Ms.  Rama Duwaji, with family and friends. Mamdani’s Ugandan background has drawn xenophobic comments in the US, with some lambasting him to; “Go Back to Africa.”

Mamdani, was born here to Professor Mahmmud Mamdani, who was a lecturer at Makerere University before he moved to South Africa, the US, among other places; and his mother, film producer, Mira Nair. He became a US citizen in 2018.

His journey here comes amidst a spate of political scrutiny in the U.S. When he defeated former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo and 7 other contenders in the Democratic mayoral primary, he even drew the attention of US President Donald Trump.

Trump branded him “a 100% Communist Lunatic” in his Truth Social media, referring to Mamdani as a “radical leftie” who was “on his way to becoming Mayor”.  It drew angst against him, getting Trump to accuse Mamdani of being “here [in US] illegally”.

Anticipating a negative press in the US for his Uganda trip, Mamdani in amusement, suggested potential headlines from the politically influential The Washington Post newspaper, stating titles like “Ugandans Miss Me” and “He’s Kampala-etely [Completely] Crazy.” This has indicated his ability to confront the political attacks. His response to these critics is: “I hear you and I agree: I’m going back to Uganda.”

In his career, Mamdani has even been a hip-hop artiste. A decade ago, under the brand ‘Young Cardamom’, he collaborated with Ugandan rapper, HAB, and produced their hit number “Sidda Mukyaalo” (Luganda for “I am Not Going Back to the Village”). It resonates in Kampala’s urban life, on things like; racism, corruption and camaraderie, in a lyrical blend of Luganda, English and Hindi.

When he was here in 2016, he performed at the Nyege Nyege Festival in Jinja.  The clip, recently shared in his official X account, brought nostalgia and surprise among many about his musical past.  Mamdani’s deep connection to Kampala, as an “Asian Ugandan” who considers the city his sole “village,” profoundly influenced his artistic and later, NY political ascendancy.

Mamdani captured the attention and imagination of many New Yorkers by promising what has come to be known as, “Affordability”. He said he would freeze rents and raise taxes on the wealthy to finance free buses, free universal child care and city-owned grocery stores with reduced food prices. He said, “This campaign is with the vision of a city that every New Yorker can afford.”

In his stumping campaign Mamdani said: “This is a city where one in four of its people are living in poverty, a city where 500,000 kids go to sleep hungry every night.”

Taxing the rich affects Trump, directly. He is one of NY’s billionaire property owners. No less than a million landlords would be affected. And tripling the production of rent-stabilized, union-built housing, affects the rich on expanding affordable housing, for the working people.

He proposed increasing taxes on residents who earn more than one million dollars, a year, and raising NY’s corporate tax rate from 7.25 per cent to 11.5 per cent. The ideas have also caused dismay on Wall Street, where financiers are now trying to find an “anyone-but-Mamdani” candidate, capable of halting the self-declared democratic socialist in his tracks.

This has three things going against Mamdani: One, stripping him of US citizenship; two, anti-Semitism; and three, freezing deportation; or,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which have rankled Trump.

The White House Press Secretary, Ms. Karoline Leavitt, indicated Trump’s promise to investigate Mamdani’s citizenship on grounds that he concealed support for “terrorism” in his naturalization process. There is now an Islamophobic attacks on his Muslim faith following the use of the phrases like, “Globalize the Intifada”, a claim seen as anti-Semitic and against the Israeli war in Gaza. Even Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has chorused the line, against Mamdani’s objections to the slaughter of Palestinians.

On ICE against what Mamdani says is the “deporting our neighbours”, Trump simply said, “Well, we’ll have to arrest him.” In his reply Mamdani said, “The President of the United States just threatened to have me arrested, stripped of my citizenship, put in a detention camp and deported. Not because I have broken any law but because I will refuse to let ICE terrorize our city.” His message was that Trump is trying to terrorize every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: “If you speak up, they will come for you. We will not accept this intimidation.”

Mamdani has been supported by others; and Mr. Chris Murphy, a Democratic Senator for Connecticut, who is an effective critic of Trump writes. “He [Trump] will stop at nothing to protect billionaires and price-gouging corporations, even racist [bull…s…t] like this,” adding that, “Zohran won because he ran a campaign laser focused on putting power back in the hands of working people. And that’s a threat to the Mar-a-Lago crowd.” Mar –a-Lago is Trumps’s opulent holiday retreat in the State of Florida. He frequently goes to Mar-a-Lago for his meetings and golf playing with his rich “friends”.

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