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Has Mahmood Mamdani used the term communist in any interviews or books (with dates)?
Executive summary
Mahmood Mamdani has used the word “communist” in at least one of his scholarly works: his 1995 collection on African social movements explicitly references Communist Parties in Sudan, showing he used the term in academic analysis rather than as a partisan label [1]. In interviews and later writings he more often discusses Marxist-Leninist currents or critiques of political ideologies without repeatedly self-identifying or labeling others as “communist,” and recent journalism from 2025 highlights that critics and political opponents sometimes misapply the term to him or his son, Zohran, despite Mamdani identifying with democratic socialism in public debates [2] [3] [4]. Below I extract the main claims, lay out the documentary timeline, compare competing readings, and flag likely political motives shaping how the word has been used about him.
1. The claim under scrutiny and what sources actually say
Multiple contemporary claims assert that Mahmood Mamdani has been called or has used the term “communist” in public settings. The primary evidence that Mamdani himself used the term appears in his 1995 scholarly work where he names Communist Parties in Sudan, which is usage in a descriptive, academic register rather than partisan rhetoric [1]. Contemporary reporting from 2025, including pieces responding to attacks on his son Zohran, documents that Mamdani is frequently mischaracterized as communist by opponents and in partisan discourse; those articles stress Mamdani’s own preference for the label democratic socialist and criticize sloppy conflation of socialism and communism [3] [4]. Several interviews and analyses across 2017–2021 show Mamdani engaging with Marxist frameworks but not routinely calling people “communist” as an epithet [2] [5].
2. Documentary timeline — the firm examples and dates
The earliest concrete, dated instance in the provided material is Mamdani’s 1995 book-length collection where “Communist Parties” in Sudan are discussed as part of African social movements; this establishes he used the term in print by 1995 [1]. A 2017 interview situates Mamdani discussing Marxist-Leninist thought and its influence on political movements and terrorism debates, showing the vocabulary recurs in his intellectual history commentary without evidence he is labeling contemporary politicians as communists [2]. Between 2021 and 2025, interviews and news analysis continue to show Mamdani focused on decolonial theory, nationalism, and postcolonial critique, with journalists and commentators noting he does not self-identify as a communist and is more often described as a democratic socialist [5] [3].
3. How opponents and supporters use the term differently
Right-leaning actors and political opponents at times use “communist” as a political smear, applying it to Zohran Mamdani and by association to his family; 2025 articles document such attacks and rebuttals pointing out the misuse of the term [4] [3]. Academic and left-leaning interlocutors treat Mamdani’s use of Marxist terminology as part of intellectual analysis of historical movements rather than ideological confession. This divergence illustrates a semantic battle: critics conflate public policy proposals and democratic socialism with communism, while supporters emphasize Mamdani’s scholarly engagement with Marxist theory without party allegiance [3] [6]. The result is repeated mislabeling rather than clear evidence of Mamdani personally adopting the communist label.
4. Scholarly context — when “communist” appears as description, not advocacy
The 1995 reference to Communist Parties in Sudan and the 2017 discussion of Marxist-Leninist influences show Mamdani uses “communist” as an analytic category to describe movements and ideologies in historical and political context [1] [2]. His broader corpus on decolonization and political modernity focuses on structural analysis and critique, not on issuing party slogans; reviewers and interlocutors have criticized and defended his framing, sometimes accusing him of anti-U.S. bias or selective emphasis, which underscores the contested nature of his analytic language [6]. That pattern supports the conclusion that instances of the word reflect scholarly description rather than repeated personal identification with Communist Party politics.
5. What to conclude and what remains uncertain
Based on the provided materials, it is factually supported that Mahmood Mamdani used the term “communist” in print by 1995 in an academic context and engaged with Marxist-Leninist concepts in interviews such as in 2017 [1] [2]. There is no clear evidence in the supplied sources that he repeatedly self-applied the label as a partisan identifier or that he publicly campaigned as a communist; contemporary 2025 reporting emphasizes that such labeling often reflects political motive and imprecision rather than Mamdani’s own language or declared affiliation [3] [4]. Remaining uncertainty includes any additional interview quotes or texts not provided here; locating direct interview transcripts beyond those cited would be the next step to fully map every instance of his usage.