Inside NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's First African Heritage Reception at Gracie Mansion
258 guests, a Kwame Nkrumah soccer ball that never leaves his City Hall desk, and a promise to make it a yearly tradition — the mayor's celebration of Africa, in his own words.
Lihle Z. MtshaliLihle Z.MtshaliToday in Africa & Newsletters Editor
New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani hosts the first-ever African Heritage Reception at Gracie Mansion on Wednesday, September 9, 2026.by NYC Mayor’s Office
Ugandan-born New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted his first-ever African Heritage Reception at Gracie Mansion, his official residence, on Wednesday, September 9, celebrating the African communities, cultures, and contributions that help make NYC the cultural hub it is. The 258 guests included his parents: father, Mahmood Mamdani, a prominent Ugandan academic, author, and political commentator, and his mother, acclaimed Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair.
In his remarks, Mamdani spoke about lessons from his namesake, Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first prime minister, tracing that name from Kampala, where he was born, to Cape Town at five, to New York at seven — then pointed to well-known African spots across the city as proof the throughline never broke.
"Freedom is not something that one people can bestow upon another as a gift. They claim it as their own, and none can keep it from them," Mamdani said, quoting Nkrumah — before closing his remarks with two words: "Welcome home."
Most people in his position — running a city an ocean away, having left the continent at seven — would let the connection fade into biography. Mamdani hasn't — dual citizenship, a year of school back in Kampala as a teenager, performing in local languages at Uganda's Nyege Nyege festival. OkayAfrica asked him what's kept him choosing Africa, and whether Wednesday's reception was a one-time gesture or the start of something more permanent.
Watch his answers below.
What City Hall Is Doing for African Immigrant New Yorkers
New York's African immigrant communities, cab and rideshare drivers, street vendors, home health aides among them, have been squeezed hard by ICE enforcement in the past few months. OkayAfrica asked the mayor's office what the administration is doing about it: they point to legal screening clinics, borough-wide Community Conversations, trainings for community groups and city staff run with a national non-profit network that supports immigrant legal services (C.L.I.N.I.C.) and Immigrant Justice Corps, and planned phone banks — with New Yorkers directed to the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs' free Immigration Legal Support Hotline.
Street vendors, many of whom are recent arrivals from West Africa and sell bags, watches, and jewelry along Canal Street in New York City, have recently become targets of NYPD and ICE raids.by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Quick 6 With Mayor Mamdani
Before he spoke about heritage and policy, Mamdani took on OkayAfrica's Quick 6 — and gave us a Riky Rick tribute, a dinner order, and a firm no on picking the mic back up as Young Cardamom.
