Zohran Mamdani’s identity seems complicated, but for Ugandans he is just their “son” | Zohran Mamdani

oneAmidst the trees gathered by jackfruit motorcycles that were firmly woven on the crowded roads of Kampala earlier this year, this is a campaign poster Katongole Singh, a perfectly unlimited candidate Katongole Singh, who actively tied up with President Yoweri Museveni.

Singh is rare in the Uganda capital of Sikh Indian surname and indigenous Uganda, and people of Indian descent have lived for more than 125 years. Many people here have a versatile “African Indian” identity – like Zohran Kwame Mamdani, the 33-year-old runs for mayor New York City.

Mamdani, who beat Andrew Cuomo this summer to win the Democratic primary, won the November mayoral competition, was born in the shock this summer. Ugandawhen he moved to New York as a child. In July, Mandani even returned here to attend his wedding ceremony, a busy three days in Kampala.

The same month, The New York Times reported that an anonymous source – allegedly Jordan Laskerfamous eugenics and neo-Nazis – have hacked internal data, indicating when applying Columbia University In 2009, Mamdani had Determine his race as “Asian” and “Black or African American”.

The story has caused anger among some critics who call Mandani an identity politics of weapons in order to preferentially gain prestigious universities. (He was not accepted.)

Mamdani says he has checked what he said “Constrained” Frame capture “My background is full”and instead of seeing himself as an African American or a black man, he was “an African-born American.”

In Kampala, however, it is clear that the Ugandans of Indian descent have no doubt seen Africans as Africans – both black indigenous Ugandans and themselves.

“We have come from India Indigenous names of Uganda, they speak the Ugandan language. “They will tell you that they actually know nothing about India because they were born here,” said Sarah Kirikumwino, a 20-year-old communications student. ”

Nevertheless, Indian cultural influences are easily identified here, especially through food. Near the Acacia Shopping Center in Kampala, a black Ugandan woman selling wood made signs of crosses before dipping her vegetable Samosa in Emerald Green Chutney.

“Asian cuisine, such as Samosas, pancakes and chai, has been well integrated into Ugandan society,” said Kenyan-based restaurant owner Aman Kapur, who caters to Mamdani’s wedding. “They were introduced here by Asians who were brought to work in the early 19th century.”

Mamdani’s mother, Oscar-nominated film director Mira Nair, is Indian. His father – postcolonial scholar Mahmood Mamdani – was born in India’s Indian parents.

Kapoor says Mamdani’s wedding feast is as mixed with his legacy between him and his American Syrian wife Meet on the hinge: A Mediterranean, Indian, Pakistani and Ugandan cuisine Smorgasbord, including dishes from Roalx – a staple in Uganda’s street food (Caphati), rolling around eggs, the same as a Swiss watch.

Mamdani’s rebound faces his identity reminds Mark Niwagaba (student at Makerere University of Kampala) Mark Niwagaba “Birther Movement” conspiracy theoryof which Donald Trump claims Barack Obama is not Naturally born citizensas the president required by the Constitution.

“Obama’s father is Kenyan and his mother is Hawaiian – he’s not dark enough, and he’s not white enough.” The 24-year-old said on an open poetry night between Kardamom and Koffee, and Mira Nair is said to be frequent. (Obama’s mother was born in Kansas and studied at the University of Hawaii.) “Mandani seems to face the same challenge.”

The history of Ugandan Indians is not without conflict. South Asian immigrants (most of them India) were brought into the country by British colonial forces and began as indentured workers since 1894. Ugandan Indians built a 600-mile railway that connects the Ugandan side of Lake Victoria to the port of Mombasa, Kenya.

They were favored by the UK to manage tea and coffee plantations, and they quickly built successful businesses and gained wealthy wealth while black Ugandans struggled.

Then in 1972, Idi Amin fired 50,000 The Ugandans of South Asian origin gave them 90 days to leave.

Nevertheless, although now it’s made up Less than 1% Among the population, Ugandans of Indian descent remain a prosperous community here, contributing 60% of taxes. From the logo Billion dollars Madhuvani Group to Hotels is like a 4-star boutique hotel, one of the first hotels in Uganda, by Jaffer Family – The wealth of Ugandans can be seen throughout the capital.

Many people live in Uganda all their lives and are accepted as Africans. Born in Kampala and now lives in Birmingham, England, Yashwant Patel recalls his childhood swimming in Lake Victoria, hiding mangoes and Guavas throughout Entebbe.

“No one looked at us like we invaded this place,” Patel recalls. “On the way to Entebbe…you can buy a whole bag of mangoes we would eat. I can still remember the juice! Of course, the mango seeds were brought from India. Even though I hadn’t been to India, my mother and father would say, ‘It’s like in India!’”

Many people here think Mamdani is absolutely African. “Our own sons have a great position in the United States and we are very satisfied with it,” said Fred Ndaula, a Uganda guide in Kampala. “They are Ugandans. This is their country.”

However, identity in the United States can be complicated, and not everyone agrees that Mamdani has the right to claim “African” identity. “African Americans” are often used to designate people of black descent, who violently amputated from history and ancestors through the transatlantic slave trade.

Case Rachel Dolezal – Academic and former president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) – is an example of a notorious white woman who disguised herself as black until she was exposed in 2015.

“This has caused resentment from African Americans, so it is no surprise that Mamdani’s attempt to accurately reflect his complex legacy in the form of designing for binary black/white thinking will put many African Americans in trouble many African Americans,” said Dr. Kim d Butler, a black historian and associate professor, said.

But, she added, Mamdani said: “It is closely related to a particular African country, than I have not yet discovered my father and ancestors who worked on the land of Revolutionary War officials, who left a piece of land and our name no longer remembers these 200 years.”

She added: “‘He’s not really Africans convey the subtle message we hear about what we say- “We’re not really America.” ”

Indeed, Indians from Africa are not always easy to fit into the U.S. racial category, noted Amishi Aggarwal, an Indian researcher at Oxford University, who has been working with the refugee community in Uganda.

He points to a Nair movie Mississippi Masala as a reference point. The film is in a Uganda-Indian family forced to flee to the United States, where a daughter falls in love with an African-American man played by Denzel Washington. The film shows the racism expressed by her family – even if they face racism, like immigrants in the depths of the South.

“There are also a lot of dynamics in castes and classes in the Indian-Ugendan community, and there may be internal racism,” Agwal said.

Mamdani’s own history is even more complicated: his family moved from Uganda to South Africa, and his father, Mahmood, taught at the University of Cape Town. The affinity of young Mamdani for his African-Uganda identity can be attributed in part to the work and activism of his father, who is the author of several books on colonialism, Rwandan genocide, Darfur and the so-called war on terror.

After moving to the United States, Mahmood joined the activism after being inspired by the Ugandan independence movement in the 1960s, where he joined the civil rights movement and participated in the boycott of the Montgomery bus. He also named himself after the idol of Ghana’s first Democratic president Pan-Africanism kwame nkrumah.

Historian Shamil Jeppie works with Mahmood to meet first Zohran Mamdani When I was a kid. As an anti-apartheid student activist, Jeppie not only saw how race was weapons of apartheid regime, but how centuries of mixed immigration and community created multipersonal identities and communities that he was as unintelligible in the global North as himself.

“‘Africa’ is not a race,” said Jepi. “Africa is a continent, a space. It does not terminate together with race, language or religion. It consists of various linguistic, religious and ethnic groups.”

It is no surprise that Mamdani’s identity is too complicated to fit neatly into a box for college applications, he said. “Africans, ‘Asians,’Muslims’ – For Africans in America, these are simply not contradictory.”