Uganda-born son of Indian immigrants turned NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani is drawing global attention — especially from progressives eyeing his playbook.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Zohran Mamdani’s rise to New York City mayor is making waves far beyond the five boroughs of the city. Born in Uganda to a family of Indian descent, Mamdani’s win is drawing attention around the world, and progressive politicians are taking note. For a view from abroad, we’ve turned to our correspondents in Asia, Europe and, first, Africa, with reporter Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “KANDA (CHAP CHAP)”)
YOUNG CARDAMOM: (Rapping) I got the same history as chapati. Origins of India but born in UG. Rock-brown skin (rapping in non-English language).
KATE BARTLETT: That’s rapper Young Cardamom, probably now better known as Zohran Mamdani, the youngest mayor-elect of one of the world’s most important cities. In this decade-old music video filmed in his birth country, Uganda, Mamdani nods to his Indian roots then quickly switches to Luganda, the local language of the East African country. Even his second name, Kwame, is African.
Ugandan journalist Joseph Beyanga mentored Mamdani when he was getting work experience in media in Kampala. He said the mayor-elect had a social conscience even as a teenager.
JOSEPH BEYANGA: His questions were always about, this and this has happened. How does it affect the people? He was always in touch with the common man, so it’s not anything new. It’s just grown bigger and now he has it on a big stage.
BARTLETT: Mamdani’s family left Uganda when he was 5 and moved to South Africa, where apartheid had just ended. St. George’s Grammar School in Cape Town congratulated their famous alumni on Wednesday, urging him to uphold the school motto, which is, the courage to do what is right.
FATIMA AL-KASSAB, BYLINE: I’m Fatima Al-Kassab in London, where the left-wing mayor is the son of immigrant parents.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SADIQ KHAN: People will be wondering what it is about this Muslim mayor who leads a liberal, multicultural, progressive city.
AL-KASSAB: That’s Sadiq Khan back in September. Lots of comparisons are made between him and Zohran Mamdani. Both are their city’s first Muslim mayor, and both have clashed with President Trump. But politically, Mamdani is considered further to the left and more similar to figures like U.K. Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who spoke on Sky News.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ZACK POLANSKI: I feel like I’m grinning from ear to ear. It just feels like a delightful moment where hope has triumphed.
AL-KASSAB: Polanski has excited younger voters and seen a surge in the polls for the Green Party. The press is even asking if he will become Britain’s answer to New York City’s mayor-elect. In fact, it seems that everyone wants to be the British Mamdani or French Mamdani.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MANON AUBRY: Vote for Zohran for a city you can afford. (Speaking French).
AL-KASSAB: That’s French member of the European Parliament Manon Aubry campaigning for Mamdani in New York last week. She was one of a group of left-wing European politicians who came before the vote to learn the secrets to his surprising success.
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: I’m Diaa Hadid in Mumbai, the city where Zohran Mamdani’s father was born. Mamdani’s victory was headline news in South Asia. Why not? His roots run deep here. His Hindu mother was raised in New Delhi – Mira Nair, an Oscar-nominated director. His Muslim father is a Ugandan citizen who was born in Mumbai. But in India, Zohran Mamdani’s victory was met coolly by the Hindu nationalist governing party, the BJP, led by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. That’s because the Mayor-elect once called Modi a war criminal. He accused him of being behind communal riots that raged through the western state of Gujarat in 2002 that killed more than a thousand people at the time when Modi was the chief minister. The Indian Supreme Court later found no evidence to prosecute Modi of any wrongdoing.
But there are others who embrace Mamdani for his talk about the India he loves – a tolerant, multi-faith nation. He seemed to nod to those people after his victory was declared when he referenced an iconic speech by India’s independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru. He said, a moment comes but rarely in history where we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance. And tonight, he said, we have stepped out from the old into the new.
CHANG: That was NPR’s Diaa Hadid in Mumbai. Earlier, we heard from Fatima Al-Kassab in London and Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg.
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