How a Small Elite College in Maine Influenced Mamdani’s World View

It wasn’t so much what Zohran Mamdani said. It was how he said it.

“We’re going to stand up for Haiti, because you taught the world about freedom!” the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York exclaimed to an elated crowd at a Haitian music festival in June, fresh off his upset victory in the primary.

Mr. Mamdani pronounced the island nation’s name “AH-ee-tee” — near-perfect Creole elocution.

“When I heard him say that, I smiled,” recalled Brian Purnell, one of Mr. Mamdani’s former professors at Bowdoin College. He also noted that Mr. Mamdani’s reference to freedom was a nod to Haiti’s status as the first republic founded by former slaves.

“That’s straight out of the lessons from the Haitian Revolution that we teach in Africana studies,” said Dr. Purnell, who is now the chair of the Africana studies department at Mr. Mamdani’s alma mater. “I will claim that,” he added with a laugh.

If Mr. Mamdani becomes the next mayor of New York, as polls suggest, he will be mold-breaking in striking ways. He would be the first Muslim, the first unabashed democratic socialist and, at 34, among the youngest to hold the office.