Magid Magid

Magid Magid (, born 26 June 1989), also known as Magid Mah and Magic Magid, is a Somali-British activist and politician who served as the Lord Mayor of Sheffield from May 2018 to May 2019. His appointment attracted significant media attention, as he is the first ethnic-Somali, the youngest-ever, and the first Green Party councillor to hold the role. In May 2019, he was elected to the European Parliament as Green Party MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber. Born in Burao, Somalia (now in Somaliland), Magid came as a child refugee to Britain in 1994. He grew up in Burngreave, Sheffield, and studied aquatic zoology at the University of Hull where he was elected president of Hull University Union. He has worked in digital marketing and was elected as a Green Party councillor on Sheffield City Council in 2016. From 2017 to 2018, he served as Deputy Lord Mayor, and during this period he participated in the third series of the reality show Hunted. Early life and education Magid was born in Burao, the capital city of the Togdheer region of Somaliland. Around the time of his birth, the Somali Civil War broke out. His mother, and five siblings, left Somalia in 1994 "to find a better life," and they spent six months in a refugee camp in Ethiopia before being admitted to Britain. The family moved to the Burngreave area of Sheffield. Growing up, Magid has said that he remembers "just being happy" but notes difficulties in his childhood. He has said that life was difficult for his family as he moved to Britain without being able to speak English, and they had to learn this new language as well as adapt to a new way of life. His mother worked as a cleaner to support her children through school. Burngreave was one of Sheffield's most economically-deprived areas during the early 2000s. Magid has said that he didn't "have much in the way of a male role model," continuing that "it is easy to become a product of your own environment, and a lot of my environment was negative. So I was a bit of a pain in the arse for a while."