{"id":369305,"date":"2026-08-08T17:25:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/369305\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T17:25:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:25:14","slug":"resurfaced-mamdani-interview-sparks-severe-backlash-over-alleged-fake-ugandan-accent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/369305\/","title":{"rendered":"Resurfaced Mamdani interview sparks severe backlash over alleged ‘fake’ Ugandan accent"},"content":{"rendered":"

A resurfaced 2016 interview with New York City Mayor\u00a0Zohran Mamdani<\/a>\u00a0sparked conservative backlash Wednesday after critics accused him of using a \u201cfake\u201d Ugandan accent while promoting his mother\u2019s Disney film.<\/p>\n

While promoting Queen of Katwe during a 2016 interview on South\u00a0Africa\u2019s Kaya 959 radio station, Mamdani discussed Ugandan culture, dance and music, telling the host he was \u201cfrom Uganda\u201d but also grew up in New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference for me is I\u2019m from Uganda, but I also grew up in New York. In New York, you go out, some guys are very hesitant to dance,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, if they\u2019re not grinding, they\u2019re just standing. In Kampala, you will just not find that. People are all dancing. Everybody\u2019s dancing, men, women and it\u2019s fantastic that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The clip, which also resurfaced last year,\u00a0quickly spread across social media\u00a0again and prompted a wave of mockery.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at theater kid commie Mamdani running another fake accent and appropriating African culture. Communists are all frauds. EVERY single one. Don\u2019t ever trust a communist, or else you\u2019ll get Galloway\u2019d and stranded in a gulag,\u201d former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt\u00a0posted on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In another\u00a0post on X<\/a>, The Benny Show host Benny Johnson wrote, \u201cUNEARTHED: Zohran Mamdani does an obviously fake Ugandan accent while promoting a Disney movie based in Africa. How many Democrats have been caught using fake accents at this point? They\u2019re all frauds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NYCMayor Zohran Mamdani holds a security briefing ahead of the Dominican Day Parade at Police Headquarters in New York on Aug. 7, 2026. Erik Pendzich\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone else notice Mamdani\u2019s accent change? He must\u2019ve studied at Obama University,\u201d Twitter Spaces host and conservative social media commentator Tara Bull\u00a0posted on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody does a fake accent better than a Democrat politician,\u201d the Daily Wire\u00a0posted on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHas Zohran Mamdani ever explained when adopting another culture\u2019s accent is \u2018cultural appropriation\u2019 and when it is \u2018authenticity\u2019? He had plenty to say about everyone else\u2019s privilege at Bowdoin,\u201d Former Crazy Eddie CFO and convicted fraudster Sammy Antar\u00a0posted on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Conservative Brief, a right-wing political news website,\u00a0also posted on X<\/a>, \u201cAnother One?! Here\u2019s some footage found of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani attempting to use a fake Ugandan accent while promoting a movie based in Africa. What is with the Democrats and their fake accents?!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen did Disney start to suck? When they hired the directors son who had a fake Ugandan accent. He didn\u2019t mind \u201cbig corporations\u201d when they were signing his checks,\u201d Kevin Smith, host of Loud Majority Live,\u00a0posted on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, who holds\u00a0dual US and Ugandan citizenship<\/a>, was born in Uganda, raised in South Africa and moved to New York City at age seven.<\/p>\n

\"MiraMira Nair, mother of then-Democratic New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, attends a canvass launch at A. Philip Randolph Square on Nov. 2, 2025, in New York City. James Keivom<\/p>\n

The film, directed by Mamdani\u2019s mother, Mira Nair<\/a>, is based on the true story of Ugandan chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi. <\/p>\n

Mamdani is credited as the music supervisor and third assistant director and appears in a brief on-screen cameo.<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital reached out to the mayor\u2019s office for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A resurfaced 2016 interview with New York City Mayor\u00a0Zohran Mamdani\u00a0sparked conservative backlash Wednesday after critics accused him of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[58],"tags":[13826,9086,7198,5115,261,153,3265,148597],"class_list":["post-369305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uganda","tag-disney","tag-interviews","tag-new-york-city","tag-politicians","tag-politics","tag-uganda","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/117061060470520835","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}