Zohran Mamdani a Ugandan-American Rapper Turned Politician

Zohran Kwame Mamdani though he first arrived in New York City as a seven-year-old, Mamdani’s own story finds its earliest chapters in Kampala, Uganda. Born in Kampala, Uganda. Zohran is the son of academic Professor Mahmood Mamdani, the former director of Makerere Institute of Social Research, and filmmaker Mira Nair.

After graduating from Bowdoin College in Maine, he divided his time between Uganda and America, carving out a

short but successful career as a rapper, making his musical debut as Young Cardamom; Mamdani revisited his hip-hop days in 2019, releasing a video titled, “Nani,” featuring the acclaimed actor and cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey as an exceedingly woke grandma. “My professional pathway has zigged and zagged,” he divulges, recalling a particularly disorienting stint as a tutor in New York City.

“There was a point I was taking the train to the bus that was the exact combination I took in high school but the opposite route,” Zohran reveals. “It was this very on-the-nose, stuck-in-reverse moment.” When he chanced upon an opportunity to canvas for Khader El-Yateem, a Palestinian Lutheran pastor running for City Council in 2017—“[El-Yateem] brought aspects of my life together that I didn’t know could live together in the same moment,” he says—Mamdani began to believe his own hybrid identity might also find a home in local politics. And this identity has been crucial in his political journey.

“ZOHRAN THE POLITICIAN”

New York State Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani has been a voice to the immigrants in New York City. He once participated in a hunger strike to demand that the city guarantee loans to taxi drivers.

The New York taxi drivers had started a hunger strike to demand that the city offer a larger bailout for taxi medallions, which is the permit that gives yellow cabs the ability to pick up passengers on the street.

New York City Mayor then “Bill de Blasio” announced that his government was planning to allocate $65 million to bailout city taxi drivers, many of whom were facing economic hardship because of the predatory loans they were sold in the form of medallions.

Mamdani — who was taking part in the hunger strike, which was on its 14th day — said during an interview on Hill.TV’s “Rising” that the drivers were essentially requesting that the city commit to covering their loans if they default.

“Fundamentally, the demand was for the city to guarantee driver’s loans. And what that means is that if a driver were to default on their payments, that the city would step up and pay the balance to the lender,” Mamdani said.

The assembly member said their demand is “critical” in two ways: it protects drivers from losing all their belongings if they default on their loans, and it eliminates risk on the loan.

“One is because when these drivers have defaulted thus far, lenders have gone after everything that they own, their car, their home, their other assets that they may have.  And two is that when you guarantee a loan, it then incentivizes the lender to offer more favorable terms to the driver because the risk has been eliminated from the equation,” Mamdani said.

Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialists of America–backed member for the New York State Assembly, has also  been supporting threatened immigrants for the rights to own a home, fighting for foreclosure crisis in the district.

Mamdani’s father’s family lived in refugee camps in Britain, facing attacks from skinheads and exclusion from British society. Zohran recalls a story his father told him about their time in Britain. “After they left the camp,” he says, “they moved into a more permanent residence. They would still, every Sunday go to Gatwick (airport in London) and watch the plane take off to Entebbe, Uganda’s international terminal, and would just sit and let their hearts kind of soar with the plane as it climbed in the sky and just crash as the plane disappeared. Every week they would go and they would watch.”

Eventually Idi Amin was overthrown, and the family returned to Kampala. Yet, Mamdani says, “they were never able to reclaim who they were before expulsion.” His grandfather had been a poet and auctioneer, a much-loved community leader. After the expulsion, his grandson says, “he never worked a day in his life. The only way I knew him was apparently as a shadow of himself.”

Zohran Mamdani, who lived in Kampala until he was seven, when his family migrated to the United States, says his uncle and grandparents would always ask, “Where are we going to settle?” He reflects, “Even though they were back in Uganda, there was a sense that this place could never be permanent, could never be home.”

To Zohran Mamdani, Kampala has always been home. Ugandan music, food, lifestyle and the ambiance of this city has always felt home. On his interview by Kgomotso Mesa a presenter of Kaya FM in South Africa, Zohran talks of his role as a music supervisor for “Queen Of Katwe” (Living in Katwe, a slum in Kampala, Uganda, is a constant struggle for 10-year-old Phiona (Madina Nalwanga), her mother Nakku Harriet (Lupita Nyong'o) and younger members of her family).

Zohran produced a playlist for his mother Mira ‘a film maker’. Through the interview, he reflects the commonalities that makes the sound of Ugandan music. The Afro-pop being a big sound in Kampala. “We sometime joke that Uganda used to be some part of Jamaica”- says Zohran.

‘How people be speaking in Patois, playing reggae music and the dancehall vibes. You think you’re in Kingston.’- he continues.

Zohran’s music career has been a juxtaposition of both his Ugandan and Indian heritage, with singles like (Kanda chap chap) a song about chapati. Chapati being one of Uganda’s signature food. He also has an EP ‘Extended play’ titled (Sida Mukyalo). His “Number one spice” was featured in the movie “Queen of Katwe”, playing thrice in the movie. Uganda is home to Zohran.