Zohran Mamdani, a teenager with an "inextinguishable curiosity about the world," entered the Daily Monitor newsroom in Uganda in 2007 with the burden of getting a "top journalist."
In order to help his adolescent understand further about current events, Mamdani's father had made arrangements for his son to work at the review.
“He told me himself: He had to go every evening and have a conversation with his dad about the current affairs of the day,” recalled Angelo Izama, the journalist who was tasked with mentoring Mamdani in the capital of his native Uganda, Kampala.
“Top reporter” is how Izama saved Mamdani’s number in his cellphone.
“He was very, very curious as a young person,” said Izama, who remained in touch with Mamdani for years after his months-long experience as a journalist. “This is something that will stay with him forever.”
The 34-year-old Mamdani, who has retained his Ugandan citizenship, has the ambition to become the first Muslim and Indian- American mayor of New York City. He ran against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who's running as an independent, and Democratic Curtis Sliwa on Tuesday, the last day of voting.
Izama told The Associated Press that he wasn't shocked by Mamdani's ascent in American politics and characterized him as an alleviation to youthful people worldwide, not only for his fellow Ugandans and other Africans.
In 1991, Mamdani was born in Kampala. His father is Mahmood Mamdani, a professor at Columbia University who spent many years teaching at Makerere University, Uganda's premier public university. His scholarly works have a significant impact on postcolonial studies. His mother is Mira Nair, a filmmaker whose work has received an Academy Award nomination. He is an only child.
The Mamdanis have a hillside house in a posh neighborhood of Kampala, and they divide their time between the United States, India, and Uganda.
“We shouldn’t just be proud of Mamdani,” said Joseph Beyanga, a media manager who is among those who mentored Mamdani at the Daily Monitor. “We should be very excited.”
Beyanga claimed that Mamdani's ambition "challenged" him and described it as a civic lesson for young Africans who feel excluded from politics while elderly leaders are accused of abusing their position of authority. Yoweri Museveni, the president of Uganda since 1986, is one of them.
"There is reason for us to be very proud," Izama said, adding that Mamdani "brings a role-model charge that would electrify Africa, which is full of talent."
Mamdani frequently returned to Uganda after leaving as a child. In 2018, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. The tone- described a popular socialist worked as a community organizer in the Queens city of New York before being tagged to the New York assembly in 2021, aiding evicted homes.
Political circles were rocked by Mamdani's victory over Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary. In order to reduce the cost of living, he has pledged free municipal buses, free childcare, a rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments, and government-run grocery stores, all of which will be funded by taxes on the wealthiest.
U.S. President Donald Trump has taken notice of his campaign and has claimed without proof that Mamdani entered the country "illegally." Mamdani's deportation and denaturalization have been demanded by certain Republicans.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have endorsed Mamdani, while former President Barack Obama has reportedly offered to serve as a sounding board.
Yet Mamdani’s rocketing success would not be easily replicated in Uganda, said Nicholas Sengoba, an independent political analyst in Kampala.
His rise shows “that America is a land of opportunity for the free and the brave,” he said. “The irony is that in Uganda, you would have to put in a big fight for it. You would have to blast your way into the door.”
How did Mamdani’s early life in Uganda shape his political views?
Zohran Mamdani’s early life in Uganda deeply shaped his political views through the experiences and intellectual terrain handed by his family and the political environment of the country.
Born in Kampala, Uganda, his father Mahmood Mamdani is an accredited academic and political judge known for his work on colonialism, identity, and postcolonial governance. Mahmood’s experiences of exile following the 1972 expatriation of Asians from Uganda by Idi Amin, and his academic focus on justice and societal enhancement, heavily told Zohran.
Growing up in a family that valued intellectual rigor, social justice, and activism, Mamdani was exposed beforehand to revolutionary study and the complications of political individualities. The family’s history of relegation and the struggles of the Ugandan Asian community informed his commitment to issues of equity, community commission, andanti-racism.