© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Zohran Mamdani created history after New Yorkers elected him their first Muslim and South Asian-origin mayor. Digging into the mayor-elect’s past always throws up hidden gems. Get this: In his days as a Hip-Hop rapper, Young Cardamom, Mamdani once collaborated with Ali Sethi, the Pakistani-American singer of ‘Pasoori’ fame, to produce a song called ‘Chhoti Bahu’. Yes, the same name as a popular Indian soap opera at the time.
Speaking to Okay Africa, Mamdani said the song explored the issue of “brown and black relations” and the class realities within Ugandan society.
Mamdani embraced his rapper past — though with much embarrassment — during his campaigning this year after a video of a 2019 rap, titled ‘Nani’, went viral.
Under the updated moniker of Mr Cardamom, Mamdani got then-86-year-old actress and cookbook author, Madhur Jaffrey, to star in it. The spirited and quite hilarious song pays homage to Mamdani’s South Asian roots and the melting pot of cultures that is New York. The video is shot in a Bangladeshi neighbourhood and features a popular Pakistani restaurant, Kabab King, and Asian kids inside Khan’s tutoring centre. He even called it a “desi love letter to New York” in an interview with The New York Times.
Mamdani has said that he discovered Hip-Hop in 2001, and the music gave him an avenue to “understand myself and the world around me”.
Mamdani went on to become a rapper of his own. Long before he entered politics, his music, as frivolous as it may sound, spoke of the very identity markers that define his political convictions today. He’s an immigrant working for fellow immigrants and persons of colour and a Democratic socialist who envisions a future of affordability.
In 2015, Mamdani collaborated with a childhood friend from Uganda, Hab, to release his first single, ‘Kanda (Chap Chap)’. While the song made no waves internationally, a decade later, it has found its audience. Thanks to Mamdani supporters, the video has racked up over 1.5 lakh views on YouTube.
Kanda means “rolling chapati” in the Luganda language. Mamdani raps, “I got the same history as chapati, origins of India, but born in UG. Rock brown skin, but I’m Ugandan.” Mamdani was born in Uganda’s Kampala to Indian-Ugandan academic Mahmood Mamdani and celebrated filmmaker Mira Nair. And just like him, the chapati represents an intermingling of food and cultures.
One of the lyrics goes, “Kanda nonstop and feed the people!” as the video shows graduating students being handed rolled chapatis instead of diplomas. The humble chapati here champions sustenance and community solidarity over material rewards.
In an equally jaunty EP, titled ‘Sidda Mukyaalo’, Young Cardamom and Hab released six songs — one of which was Chhoti Bahu — sung in a mix of different languages, paying homage to African and Asian cultures. Speaking to Okay Africa, Mamdani explained that Sidda Mukyaalo means “No going back to the village” in Luganda.
“I can’t go back to the village because, as an Asian Ugandan, I simply do not have any village. The city is all I have,” he added.
In another song, titled ‘Askari’, the duo tackled issues of racial bias and how post-colonialism hierarchies in Uganda still favour whites over blacks.
In 2016, Mamdani became the music supervisor for Queen of Katwe, a sports drama directed by his mother, Nair, and produced by Disney. The soundtrack in Nair’s film acts not as an accessory but as a narrative device, often conveying hidden meanings. Nair credits her son for curating the Queen of Katwe’s music, which perfectly conveyed the sound of Kampala, where it is set. The movie also featured a track ‘#1Spice’ by Young Cardamom and Hab.
Mamdani may have retired Mr Cardamom, but his tryst with music continued to define his campaign for the mayoral elections.
At the end of it all, when Mamdani gave his fiery victory speech, promising New York City of change, he walked off the stage with ‘Dhoom Machale’, the Sunidhi Chauhan hit from the 2004 action-thriller, playing for a packed City Hall.
In an America divided over the porosity of its borders, an immigrant had just won the top job. But Mamdani’s choice of Bollywood music — as non-serious as it gets — for a moment so significant comes as no surprise. Mixing politics with his brand of joy, Mamdani has earlier churned out campaign ads with his play on Kishore Kumar’s ‘Om Shanti Om’, and danced to the Caribbean ‘soca’ at a Brooklyn party just two days before the elections.
As the politics of identity plays its sinister game across the world, Mamdani’s win finds resonance well beyond the corridors of the City Hall. With his savvy social media campaign that rallied a generation of first-time voters, Mamdani provides an alternative blueprint for future politicians — one that pokes fun at itself, speaks the language of the community, and isn’t afraid to embrace change.
And as Mamdani weaves his politics with music, I leave you with the four words he told President Donald Trump: Turn the volume up.
