The Ugandan kid rocking American politics

____________

OPINION

By Opiyo Oloya

Former governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo, had a hard fall in August 2021.

He was forced to resign after several women came forward with allegations of sexual impropriety, which he fervently denied.

But after seeing how President Donald Trump, even after conviction for rape, was rehabilitated by American voters, Cuomo also wanted to clear his name in the arena of public opinion.

If Trump could do it, so could he.

Governor Cuomo sought the long-expected rehabilitation and coronation by running for Democratic Party flag-bearer for mayor of the Big Apple. Except something happened on his way to New York City Hall.

A little-known Shi’ite Muslim kid from Kampala suburbs showed up. His name — Zohran Mamdani.

If that family name sounds familiar, it is because he is the son of Professor Mahmood Mamdani, the established and well-respected Ugandan intellectual of international acclaim.

As executive director of Makerere University Institute of Social Research (MISR), Prof. Mamdani was not known for holding back when he did not like what he was seeing. He is a known social critic whose sharp analyses are respected the world over.

Obviously, like father, like son, Zohran does not hold back about social issues that matter to the common person. According to the New York City Board of Elections, the Kampala kid bested Cuomo in the primaries.

Mamdani scored a stunning 43.5% of first-place votes to Cuomo’s 36.3%. David slayed Goliath.

Except the story neither starts nor ends there.

Born in October 1991 in Kampala, young Zohran lived in Cape Town, South Africa, from age 5 to 7 before the family moved to New York City and settled in the Upper West Side.

Most of Zohran’s education was in the Big Apple, where he graduated from Bronx High School of Science.

He dabbled in hip-hop music, for a while, even working as a music supervisor on his mother’s (filmmaker Mira Nair) acclaimed film The Queen of Katwe, the movie about a 10-year-old Ugandan chess wiz who rises from poverty to world fame. But it is only now that panicky Americans are learning about the transplanted Ugandan who quietly observed and learned what makes America tick and burrowed his way into the heart of the country. He is his father’s son, after all, and he is ruffling the feathers of the establishment.

Zohran joined the Democratic Socialist of America in 2017. In 2020, he ran a very successful shoe-string campaign for New York State Assembly and won, representing Astoria and Long Island. He was unopposed in his re-elections in 2022 and 2024.

When he put his name up for mayor of New York City, nobody took him seriously. Few even knew what he was about. When the primaries were held last week, Mamdani not only topped Cuomo, he also sent the biggest shockwave throughout America. How could a no-name Muslim win the nomination of America’s biggest and richest city?

But if Americans were honest with themselves, which they rarely are, they would have learned that Zohran Mamdani had done his homework.

He has nimbly responded to the crisis of leadership within the Democratic Party itself.

The party of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr and Jimmy Carter that prided itself for representing the little guy had lost its way.

Whenever Democratic leaders like Senator Schumer spoke, it was mostly fluff and platitude that did nothing toward improving the livelihood of the common person who could not afford rent.

The lack of sincerity and focus of the Democratic Party, after all, allowed Trump to return to the White House in January.

The pugnacious Republican leader spoke plainly, saying it as it was, and Americans believed him even when some of his promises were way over the top (Who remembers Trump promising to end the Russian-Ukraine war in 24 hours after returning to the White House? It is now almost six months, and that war is still going on like never before).

Instead, Mamdani rolled up his sleeves and got to work for the dispossessed Americans.

He is the champion of the immigrant who is afraid of being deported by Trump’s immigration police.

He is the equaliser for those barely making ends meet. His programme would allow New Yorkers to get relief from mortgage and debt by advocating rent freezes. He promises to scrap transit fares so that working Americans can ride the subway for free (which already happens every day anyway, as many as 48% or about one million transit users don’t pay their fares).

He would give property owners a break from onerous property taxes that tend to eat into the monthly household budget. He would do that by shifting “the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighbourhoods”. He would lift the hourly minimum wage to $30 by 2030 so that New Yorkers will have a living wage.

New Yorkers believe Mamdani. They want the handsome young man with megawatt smile as their mayor. But don’t hold your breath. Except for the rabblerousers US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders who love Mamdani and are rendering their support to get him elected mayor, every big artillery in American politics is aimed at tripping up the upstart candidate. President Donald Trump, GOP strategists and right-wing media like Fox News have labelled Mamdani a “radical left-wing, antisemitic, extremist socialist...”

US Representatives Andy Ogles (Rep. Tennessee) and Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) have said Mamdani is a terrorist supporter and called for his deportation back to Uganda. None of this is true, of course.

Even Democratic Party leaders are muted in their support of the young candidate. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, himself a New Yorker, noted that Mamdani had out-hassled Cuomo. But he stopped short of endorsing him, expressing concern that Mamdani previously seemed to support the uprising in Gaza.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, also a New Yorker, gave tepid praise of Mamdani, especially over the affordability platform, but he wants to chat some more with Mamdani before giving his blessings.

The panic within the Democratic Party is understandable. Behind the scenes, there is frantic fundraising effort going on to ensure Mamdani is defeated.

They are worried that the election of Mamdani as mayor of the Big Apple will spell trouble for mid-terms election slated for November 2026. They know Republicans will gleefully point to Mamdani as example of Democrats trying to take America toward socialism (So you know, Americans also say the same thing about Canada being a socialist country, which it is not, of course, but deep understanding of concepts like socialism, Marxism and communism have never been a strength in American politics).

But even though he grew mostly elsewhere, Mamdani is a Ugandan in his DNA. And like most Ugandans who daily face adversity, he knows what he is up against, and he is very cool-headed about it, thinking outside the box, plotting his move carefully and forging ahead.

Instead of trading fire with fire, he is navigating the croc-infested waters of US politics like a veteran, staying centred on the issues that mostly worry New Yorkers. He has clarified his remarks about Israel — he is not antisemitic as some critics claim he says. But he is against the continued battering of Palestinians.

The bottom line is this — Win or lose come the mayoral elections in November, the Ugandan kid will continue to rise in American politics. But for now, first thing first, he must win the New York mayoral race. The odds are looking good for him.

Opiyo.oloya@gmail.com X: @Opiyooloya

Dr Opiyo Oloya is the Inaugural Associate Vice-President, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) at Western University, London, Ontario, Canada