NYC Mayor-Elect Mamdani’s Father Pledges Distance From Son’s Administration

Mahmood Mamdani Plans to Maintain “Arm’s Length” from Son Zohran’s NYC Mayoral Administration

Mahmood Mamdani, father of New York City’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, intends to maintain distance from his son’s incoming administration while remaining available for counsel, according to a new interview published Tuesday in The Guardian U.S.

“As to how I will relate to Zohran’s administration, I think initially, at least, both Mira and I will have the relationship we did during the campaign, which is to stay at arm’s length, but always be available,” the 79-year-old professor told the outlet. “Always be available for discussion, for sharing our point of view, but not mistaking ourselves for being him.”

The elder Mamdani, a professor of government and anthropology at Columbia University and director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) in Uganda, spoke candidly about the corrupting nature of political power, particularly for intellectuals.

“I don’t believe one should just stay away from power, but I don’t think we should embrace it,” he remarked. “Power is a fatal thing for intellectuals. It corrupts intellectuals. I’ve seen many, many, many a friend get corrupted in the process.”

The interview comes in the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s decisive victory in New York City’s mayoral election. The Democratic socialist is set to be sworn in as the city’s new mayor on January 1, marking a significant leftward shift in the leadership of America’s largest city.

Born in India and raised in Uganda, Mahmood Mamdani’s own political experiences have been shaped by turbulent history. He was expelled from Uganda in 1972 under dictator Idi Amin’s decree targeting citizens of South Asian descent. He later relocated to the United States, where he established himself as a prominent academic at several leading universities.

Mamdani has recently published a new book titled “Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State,” which reexamines Amin’s dictatorship and Uganda’s political evolution. The work draws on his personal experiences and decades of academic research on governance and political systems in Africa.

The professor’s relationship with his son has drawn increased public scrutiny during the mayoral campaign. In the weeks leading up to the election, controversy emerged when a video of Mahmood Mamdani discussing America’s influence on global settler colonialism went viral. In the clip from a 2022 panel discussion, which reportedly garnered over 10 million views, he asserted that the U.S. served as a model for subsequent settler-colonial projects, including those of Nazi Germany.

Additional scrutiny focused on his 2004 book, “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror,” which was reportedly dedicated to “Zohran and his mates.” The work included a controversial passage arguing that suicide bombing “needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism.”

Despite these controversies, Zohran Mamdani successfully won the mayoral race, continuing his political rise after previously serving as a New York State assemblymember representing Astoria, Queens. Prior to entering politics, the younger Mamdani worked as a community organizer.

Mahmood Mamdani has been married to acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair since 1991. The couple met while she was shooting her breakthrough film “Mississippi Masala” in Uganda, and their son Zohran was born the same year.

As January’s inauguration approaches, the dynamic between the incoming mayor and his intellectually prominent father will likely remain a point of interest for political observers, especially given Mahmood Mamdani’s stated intention to remain available for counsel while respecting the independence of his son’s administration.