Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani discusses his latest book, Slow Poison, which explores how British colonial rule shaped Uganda’s post-independence state and the long tenure of leaders like Idi Amin and Yoweri Museveni. Drawing on his own experiences of exile and statelessness, he links Uganda’s history of belonging and exclusion to the political ascent of his son, New York City mayor‑elect Zohran Mamdani.
Mahmood Mamdani, a professor of government in the department of anthropology at Columbia University since 1999, has published a new book titled Slow Poison, which grows out of his firsthand observations of Uganda’s struggle after independence.
In an interview with NPR’s Leila Fadel, Mamdani explains that his scholarship is rooted in his experience as a Ugandan citizen of Indian origin who was twice rendered stateless amid political turmoil in East Africa during the 1970s and 1980s. Those upheavals, he says, helped shape his focus on how colonial legacies continue to define power and belonging.
“We were migrants, and under the colonial system, migrants were defined as non-Indigenous,” Mamdani told NPR. That classification meant people like his family were denied full rights and never made to feel fully at home in Uganda. The exclusion, he says, drove his long‑running effort to understand “who belongs, who does not, and how it has changed over time,” according to the interview.
Slow Poison focuses on the making of the Ugandan state after British colonial rule and the two autocrats Mamdani argues largely shaped it: Idi Amin and current president Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986. He contends that both men operated within an entrenched colonial framework handed down by the British, perpetuating systems of control and exclusion rather than dismantling them.
Speaking with NPR, Mamdani also reflects on the parallels between his experiences in exile and the political rise of his son, Zohran Mamdani, who has been elected New York City’s next mayor. He suggests that questions of identity, power and inclusion that defined his life in Uganda continue to resonate in his son’s efforts to challenge who is seen as belonging in the United States’ largest city.
The radio segment was produced by Milton Guevara, and the digital version was edited by Majd Al‑Waheidi, according to NPR’s credits. Together, they frame Mamdani’s journey from personal hardship to global academic influence, and show how Uganda’s colonial past continues to echo in contemporary politics far beyond its borders.
