By Mulengera Reporters
In his latest 329-page book (titled Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni & the Making of the Ugandan State-SLOW POISON), 79-year-old American Columbia University anthropology & author Prof Mahmood Mamdani contemptuously brings out what he considers to be the striking similarities between Gen Museveni’s way of governing and that of former military ruler Idi Amin, who made Uganda famous through his cruelty and buffoonery approach to political leadership and international relations.
The block-burster came out barely three weeks ago and naturally, the Kampala regime was appalled and angered by the contents of the book, which caused Uganda’s Permanent Representative to the New York-based UN Amb Adonia Ayebare to make personal attacks against the author.
In a series of Tweets, Ayebare (who is a blue-eyed boy of Museveni and is renowned for taking no prisoners in his quarrelsome posts on X) went as far as describing the much-revered African scholar Mahmood Mamdani as ungrateful. He made reference to the moments when the Kampala regime had used its levers to be there for the gracefully ageing Professor when it mattered most.
Not one comfortable with unflattering scrutiny such as the much-reviewed book can bring to his credentials as one of the world’s oldest and longest serving Presidents, Gen Museveni must have been deeply hurt by the book, though he is wiser than directly and publicly registering his dismay. Sophisticated as always, he must have decided to push back through his loyal proxies like Ayebare.
Many, including at Makerere, always accused Mamdani of being a Musevenist even as recently as he served as Director Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR). They considered him to be a Museveni man, having been discomforted by his reluctancy to give frequent critical media interviews for the more than 10 years he served as MISR boss. He only ceased to head MISR a few years ago and went back to concentrate on his teaching job at Colombia University.
He also lived and related very closely with Museveni during the exile years through the 1970s and there were attempts by Museveni to recruit him into his FRONASA and later on UPM but the Ugandan scholar of Asian origin was cautious and deliberately indecisive.
The book revealed that all along Mamdani had grievances and reservations about Museveni’s governance style but chose the convenience of silence for as long as he held the lucrative job of MISR Director, off which he earned very good salary and controlled millions of dollars in research projects.
Yet the timing of the book, and the extent to which it complicated the Museveni-Mamdani relationship, couldn’t have come at a worse time for the regime in Kampala. It was released barely a month to the election of the Professor’s son, Zohran Mamdani, as Mayor New York City. It’s considered to be the world’s capital, not just America’s. It’s the commercial and diplomatic capital of the world, being home to the world’s most successful billionaires and global organizations like the United Nations (UN).
Becoming Mayor of such a city makes Zohran Mamdani a very big person in the world politics and decision-making. His Tuesday 4th November victory was historical for a number of reasons including the fact that Zohran is the first Muslim ever to become New York Mayor.
He is very close to his father and very passionate on social justice issues aimed at emancipating the poor people, the type that Kampala’s Erias Lukwago always prioritizes as opposed to propagating interests of wealthy business interests.
Originally reporting in the state-owned New Vision indicated that Museveni’s State House was enthusiastic about having 34-year-old Zohran (who is proudly Ugandan) becoming Mayor for NYC. And there were efforts to excite the Ugandan populace about one of their own becoming the political head for such an influential metropolis.
Because the ruling Ugandan establishment is aware that Gen Museveni is presiding over a tired nation full of physically and emotionally exhausted citizens, it has always been the New Vision strategy to publish stories which motivate and create hope among Ugandans so that public fatigue towards the government diminishes.
Indeed, the editorial team had all along identified the Zohran story as one such opportunity to create hope and motivate the clearly exhausted millions of Ugandans. Yet with the complications Prof Mamdani’s book has created, there is no way New Vision will cover and amplify the Zohran story with the initial prominence, enthusiasm and energy they had started with.
Having defeated two others (Republican Curtis Sliwa & Democrat-leaning independent Andrew Cuomo-both of them more establishment politicians), Zohran’s victory has been greeted with world-wide euphoria, with many likening it to the Barrack Obama moment of 2008.
Yet the New Vision is unlikely to give the story as much prominence as their original plan and desire ought to have been. To do so would be tantamount to ‘bending a knee’ towards the Mamdani family at the time their patriarch is igniting global fires potentially aimed at diminishing and discomforting the Ugandan veteran leader by inviting very troubling scrutiny and negative global publicity into his governance and human rights record. The book is also critical on growing corruption and impunity acts by regime officials in Kampala who Gen Museveni has lately demonstrated growing inability to crack the whip on.
The regime would leverage Zohran’s Ugandan citizenship and ancestral proximity to get positive media reviews, secure tourism-boosting endorsements and referrals; besides wooing over big investors to come and invest in the country’s lucrative sectors and thereby increasing forex inflows and job creation.
The same Ugandan ancestral Zohran proximity could be leveraged to enable regime spokespersons like Andrew Mwenda to engage in more productive lobbying and gradually reduce on the predictable growing diplomatic isolation Gen Museveni could end up facing in the coming months and years, especially depending on how well or unwell the much-anticipated 15th January 2026 elections go.
A Ugandan becoming Mayor of NYC is also something that ordinarily could translate into some positive publicity and referencing for Uganda in the major western media outlets. Yet the complicated Museveni-Mamdani relationship will most likely be overshadowing all that and making it very unlikely. The authorities at KCCA would also ordinarily be looking forward to cultivating twinning arrangements and collaboration with NY and other American cities. All these possibilities can safely now be considered complicated or outrightly unlikely because of the latest Museveni-Mamdani fallout deriving from the book-controversially titled Slow Poison.
WHO IS ZOHRAN:
The 34-year-old Zohran was born in Uganda in 1991. His father is Prof Mahmood Mamdani (who had just returned from exile) and mother is Mira Nair, a globally-acclaimed film maker who has had even some mentoring influence on our own theatre greats like the legendary Philip Luswata, Alex Mukulu and others.
The parents are assertive and have always used political scholarship and the creatives to amplify activism and messaging around social justice causes. They believe in an equal and inclusive society where all citizens get to enjoy the benefits of shared prosperity. They are also pro-human rights, rule of law, accountability, democracy, good governance and zero tolerance to corruption and impunity.
Their son Zohran shares the same governance philosophy and his campaign messaging centered around enacting into place a NYC that is inclusive and affordable to all New Yorkers. This approach to public affairs isn’t very different from the inclusive leadership Kampala’s Erias Lukwago stands and has always advocated for.
NYC’s first Muslim mayor also believes in the rich and wealthy being heavily taxed for trading and making money in NYC so that the realized billions in tax revenues is used to fund social services provision for the inclusive benefit of all New Yorkers. This all aimed at uplifting and supporting the urban poor who live hand to mouth, yet they are a necessary evil and can’t be gotten rid of inside NYC.
When he was five years, Zohran relocated to South Africa with his parents who later on relocated to NYC when he was seven years. At the University, he pursued Africana studies. He then proceeded to serve as a housing counsellor working among poor New Yorkers whose housing justice-related concerns and exclusion greatly intrigued him. He later on became a lower level elected leader inside the same NYC. Many have predicted he could become the contemporary Barrack Obama, redeeming the Democratic Party and re-enacting the Obama moment of the late 2000s.
His father had been a victim of the Amin economic war in 1972 (was among those who left Uganda as a result of that year’s expulsion of the Ugandan Asians) and because he has always been controversial and outspoken, Prof Mamdani equally criticized and rejected most of the Obote II policies, prompting the second UPC administration to revoke his Ugandan citizenship in 1984.
Even when he had a soft spot for Musevenism and agreed with many of the Obote II-era things the NRA overall commander was fighting against, Mamdani never accepted invitation to join and become part of Museveni’s nascent National Resistance Movement government (though he was an active participant in the Resistance Council system in Kampala in the early Museveni years). Time will tell if that ever comes to pass. And the same will predictably not be very good news for the 80-year-old Gen YK Museveni who clearly is determined to rule for life.
A close ally of the influential NY Congress woman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC, a very popular Democrat aged 36), Zohran is married to 28 year-old Rama Sawaf Duwaji, an American of Syrian origin who survives on making art paintings at a fee publicizing events and community causes in the same NYC. The renowned fine-artist, animator, illustrator and ceramist has throughout the NYC mayoral campaigning period been criticized by Republican influencers for being an active sympathizer of the Palestinian cause.
She is a prominent New Yorker in her own right and her paintings have previously featured and been reviewed or referenced by reputable publications like the New Yorker, Washington Post, and also by Apple and the BBC. Come January next year, she will be assuming the role of First Lady of NYC. Interestingly, they made on the online dating App called Hinge whereafter they proceeded to contract a civil marriage. The couple subsequently had a small dinner event at a Dubai hangout, where $72 was spent on each guest. This speaks to Zohran’s simplicity, modesty and contempt for opulent materialism.
Largely inspired by his mum’s award-winning works in film and entertainment industry, Zohran was at some point a recording hiphop artiste and has a few productions to his name. Despite her busy schedule, the mum actively got involved into her son’s campaign and supervised hundreds of volunteers who cooked and prepared chicken and the biryani delicacy for the thousands of New Yorkers who volunteered to be part of the Zohran Mamdani campaign.
President Trump has been hostile calling Zahrani a Communist and has already signaled he will be cutting some of the Federal funding to frustrate his tenure as NYC Mayor. He says that many of the NYC Mayor-elect’s policies are anti-America and pro-hostile groups like Hamas. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
