At 34, Zohran Kwame Mamdani could be New York City’s youngest mayor since 1892. But 18 years ago, he was the youngest reporter in the Daily Monitor newsroom. Zohran, as he preferred to be known, was born in Africa – Nsambya, Kampala, Uganda, in 1991.
In 2007, Zohran walked into the Monitor newsroom at the tender age of 15, not necessarily to become a journalist, but ‘trying to find himself out,’ as then-chief sports editor Mark Namanya recalls.
He had studied in South Africa and the United States, where his family lived at the time, before returning to his birthplace in 2003 at age 12. His debut in journalism, or writing, came nearly three years before he graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in Kingsbridge Heights, New York, in 2010. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 2014.
Thanks to his father’s connection with the newsroom, Zohran bypassed the conventional intern entry route, but he made sure his time counted.
According to our archives, his byline appears in sports articles from August 2007 and July 2008, many of which received notable prominence.
He mostly wrote about football – or soccer, as most New Yorkers call it. His first story was a multi-sport report titled ‘utl sponsors World University Games team,’ published on August 1, 2007. It was a solo effort ahead of the Games in Thailand and hinted at the team’s inadequate government funding.
The story appeared just below a Uganda Cranes article and Mark Ssali’s legendary ‘Mark My Word’ column, one of the most-read features of the time.
Zohran’s piece got attention. His August 3 story announced Sports Betting Africa, Uganda’s first professional betting house. Some of Zohran’s stories were event-based, others follow-ups. But most importantly, they appeared regularly: between August 1 and 7, his byline appeared four times.
You don’t know what that means to an intern, much less a 15-year-old. Perhaps Zohran’s excitement didn’t hit the ceiling, given his father Mahmood Mamdani is a renowned academic, author, and global opinion leader, and his mother Mira Nair is a celebrated filmmaker. August 7, Zohran combined with Eden Kironde for the story: ‘Kipsiro clinches UTL-Uspa Award for month of July.’ Moses Kipsiro had recently won 5000m gold at the All-Africa.
Games in Algiers and the sports press gave him 565 votes, 120 more than badminton ace Edwin Ekiring. Express FC captain Badru
Kiyega got 315 votes. Kipsiro would soon win bronze at the World Championship in Osaka, Japan. Every writer hopes their stories are backed by photos – it lends visibility and importance. Most of Zohran’s stories had that. That suggests a good relationship with editors, potential, and to some extent, luck. Zohran may have fused all three. Many of his stories were collaborations with experienced reporters, some of whom are now US citizens like him, or immigrants. That’s how good writers are groomed.
The August 4, 2007 story ‘GTV unveils Shs8.3b 5-year sponsorship’ may have been his first back-page article, co-written with Douglas Bugingo and Lambert Rusoke. He shared another back page with Yasser Kalyango: ‘Csaba still Cranes coach – Mulindwa,’ published July 16, 2008, amid speculation that Laszlo Csaba was set to join Hearts of Midlothian in the Scottish Premier League.
On the same page, Zohran hit a double, co-authoring another story with Innocent Ndawula, who would later become arguably Uganda’s best cricket reporter. (Ndawula, who still reports with this paper, recalls Zohran playing cricket with Nile Cricket Club in Uganda.) Together, they broke the story about Micho’s interest in succeeding Csaba as Cranes coach.
Two days later, the Zohran-Kalyango duo returned with ‘Fufa hands coach Csaba ultimatum,’ reporting that the Hungarian coach had ‘absconded’ duty and signed a more lucrative contract with Hearts. Fufa’s threats, however, were likely pretentious. Csaba relocated to Edinburgh. On July 19, 2008, just days before the Beijing Olympics, Zohran wrote an update: ‘Dstv upgrades Olympic coverage to 24 hours.’
On July 22, Zohran and Ismail Dhakaba Kigongo co-authored ‘Obua’s ascent,’ detailing striker David Obua’s historic transfer to Hearts, reuniting with former Cranes manager Csaba. You may not see Zohran’s handwriting in that one, but he was included because of his recent reports on Csaba and the Cranes. That’s how you motivate rising stars.
Consistency is key to any journalist’s growth. On July 23, Zohran and Kalyango returned with ‘Csaba refutes Fufa claims.’ Fufa was demanding Shs330m ($200,000) from Csaba for walking out on his contract. But Csaba responded via The Scotsman newspaper, accusing Fufa of repeatedly failing ‘to meet its bargain of the contract.’
He even claimed that Fufa president Lawrence Mulindwa had blessed his move, saying: ‘Okay, if you want to go, we can’t keep you. We don’t want to cut your career, you’ve done a very good job here and after negotiations you can go to Hearts.’ That may have been Zohran’s final article for the Monitor sports desk during his two stints as a fledgling writer. He was too young to write features, but his precocious storytelling hinted at the orator who, 18 years later, would persuade New York voters to discard their biases and cast a history-making ballot.