It was two days before King Charles III was to visit New York City, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani had nonroyal subjects on his mind.<\/p>\n
The World Cup was a few short months away. As he held a news conference on Monday to announce free fan events, he seemed giddy, putting on an accent to shout: \u201cBafana Bafana, goal for South Africa, goal for all Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the subject of the royal visit came up, he refused to say what, if given the chance, he would say to the king privately, and he said brusquely that his attendance at a Sept. 11 memorial event would \u201cbe the extent of my meeting with the king.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet on Wednesday, when asked again what he would say to King Charles, Mr. Mamdani came prepared with an answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I was to speak to the king,\u201d Mr. Mamdani said, \u201cI would probably encourage him to return the Koh-i-Noor diamond.\u201d<\/p>\n
The response was not something his communications team cooked up; it was the mayor\u2019s idea, according to a city official familiar with the mayor\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
In America, views about the British monarchy can be something of a Rorschach test on how people feel about colonial power, or inherited wealth and authority. Kings and queens are the stuff of fairy tales and poker tables in the United States, so when real monarchs come to town they tend to stir emotions. <\/p>\n
Mayor Mamdani grew up closer to the subject of the monarchy than most people. He was born in Uganda, part of the former British Empire; his parents were born in India, another former colony. His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is one of the leading scholars of post colonialism.<\/p>\n
\u201cDispossession, expulsion, being treated as non-indigenous, being treated as alien \u2014 that was the colonial construct from the beginning,\u201d said Hisham Aidi, a political scientist at Columbia University whose supervisor was Professor Mamdani. \u201cThat is Mahmood\u2019s life\u2019s work, and Zohran grew up with that.\u201d<\/p>\n