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How did Zohran Mamdani's family move from Uganda to the US?
Executive Summary
Zohran Mamdani’s family left Uganda during the upheaval of Idi Amin’s 1972 expulsion of Asians and relocated first to the UK and later to the United States, settling in New York when Zohran was a young boy — commonly reported as around age seven. His father, academic Mahmood Mamdani, held academic positions that took the family to South Africa for several years before Mahmood accepted a faculty post in the U.S., a sequence that explains stops in London, Cape Town, and ultimately New York [1] [2] [3] [4]. This account appears consistently across biographical summaries and profiles, though specific timing and emphases vary by source.
1. How an expulsion reshaped one family’s geography and identity
Multiple biographical accounts trace the Mamdani family’s initial displacement to Idi Amin’s 1972 expulsion of the South Asian minority from Uganda, a state-driven policy that forced many families to seek refuge abroad. The family’s move from Uganda to London fits the broader historical pattern of Ugandan Asians who held British passports or ties and relocated to the UK in the early 1970s [1]. Profiles of Mahmood Mamdani, Zohran’s father, document his subsequent academic career which included positions outside Uganda, and these professional moves underpin the family’s relocation arc. Reporting emphasizes that the expulsion — a political, not merely economic, event — catalyzed a generational migration that shaped Zohran’s upbringing and his later political identity as an immigrant raised in Queens [1] [4].
2. The Cape Town interlude: why South Africa appears in the story
Several sources record a stop in Cape Town, where Mahmood Mamdani taught at the University of Cape Town, placing the family in South Africa for roughly three years when Zohran was a small child. This South African period is important because it clarifies that the family did not move directly from Uganda to New York; instead, the trajectory included academic appointments that temporarily rooted them in another African country before moving to the United States [2] [4]. The Cape Town episode also complicates simplistic narratives about single-move immigrant stories: the Mamdanis experienced multiple relocations tied to academic careers and geopolitical forces, making Zohran’s identity formation transnational and layered.
3. Arrival in New York: academic opportunity and family timing
Biographical references concur that Mahmood’s academic career brought the family to the United States when Zohran was a young boy, with several sources specifying he was about seven years old at the time and that Mahmood accepted a professorship in New York [3] [5]. That timing explains why Zohran was born abroad but grew up in Queens and entered New York politics; the family’s U.S. settlement occurred during his formative years. Some sources prioritize the professional explanation — faculty appointment — while others emphasize the earlier political exile as the proximate cause of the family’s departure from Uganda, but both factors are necessary to explain the multi-stage migration [1] [3].
4. Discrepancies, emphasis, and why accounts differ
Sources vary on emphasis and minor details: some spotlight the Idi Amin expulsion as the defining catalyst [1], others emphasize Mahmood Mamdani’s academic trajectory and the Cape Town stop as part of a professional migration path [2] [3]. The variances reflect journalistic choices and source material: profiles focusing on identity and politics lean into the expulsion narrative, while academic or institutional bios foreground faculty appointments. No reputable source disputes the broad sequence — Uganda to the UK/Cape Town to New York — but differences in chronology and phrasing can create apparent contradictions if readers expect single-step explanations [1] [2].
5. Big-picture context: migration shaped by state policy and professional mobility
The Mamdani case illustrates a common pattern where state-driven displacement (Idi Amin’s expulsion) and subsequent professional mobility (academic appointments) combine to produce multi-stage migration outcomes. This pattern is well-documented in historical accounts of Ugandan Asians and in academic career paths that require international moves. Recognizing both elements — forced exile and later academic opportunity — is essential to accurately describe how the family moved from Uganda to the United States and why Zohran grew up in Queens despite being born in Uganda [1] [3] [2].