Overview
- Mamdani becomes New York’s first Muslim mayor and in his victory speech called the city a “city of immigrants” while directly challenging Donald Trump to “turn up the volume.”
- Mira Nair marked the win with a brief Instagram message celebrating her son.
- Nair is renowned for films about diaspora and marginal lives and in 2004 founded Kampala’s Maisha Film Lab to train East African filmmakers.
- Mahmood Mamdani is a leading Columbia University scholar of colonialism and African politics and author of influential works such as Citizen and Subject.
- The family’s life across Kampala, Cape Town and New York features prominently in reporting that frames Mamdani’s ascent through an immigrant narrative.