Uganda reacts to Mamdani’s mayoral victory in New York City

Following Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York’s first Muslim mayor, activists in Uganda, where Mamdani was born, described the event as a “big encouragement”, according to AP on November 6th.

Uganda has been under President Museveni’s authoritarian rule for almost four decades. For many, the victory of a young socialist leader of African descent represents a sign that “we should invest in the youth”, says Okello Ogwang, a former colleague of Mamdani’s father at Makerere University in the capital Kampala.

Mamdani was raised in Uganda until he was 5, when he moved to South Africa with his father, Columbia university professor Mahmood Mamdani, and later on to the United States.

AP, Maghrebi.org