Matthew Bigg in The New York Times:
Just after midnight on New Year’s Day, Mahmood Mamdani sat on a bench in a disused subway station and watched as his son, Zohran Mamdani, was sworn in as mayor of New York City.
At nearly 80, dressed warmly for the ceremony in a fur hat and thick coat, the older Mamdani huddled next to his wife, the acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair. It was, by any measure, an astonishing late chapter for Mr. Mamdani, a Columbia University professor who is one of Africa’s leading political thinkers. Suddenly, the son’s fame had eclipsed the father’s. At the same time, the New York City election appeared to breathe fresh life into the political ideas that had animated Professor Mamdani’s work for decades. Suddenly, new readers were scouring his books for clues into his son’s politics, and scrutinizing the professor’s contentious views on colonialism, history, identity, Israel and Palestinians.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Professor Mamdani said he had sought not to interfere with his son’s political rise and public life. “I’m more of an observer than a participant,” he said, sitting on the terrace of his brother’s house near the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa. “I reminisce.” Whether he can remain on the sidelines while his son governs New York City remains to be seen.
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