New Delhi, Nov. 4 -- In the Ugandan newsroom where he appeared one day as an intern, Zohran Mamdani looked shy and unassuming. His father had arranged for him to spend time at the Daily Monitor newspaper with hope that the teenager would show more interest in current affairs.

"He told me himself: He had to go every evening and have a conversation with his dad about the current affairs of the day," recalled Angelo Izama, the journalist who was tasked with mentoring Mamdani in 2007 in the capital of his native Uganda, Kampala.

Mamdani wanted to be a "top reporter," which is how Izama recalled saving the young man's number in his cellphone. While sports was the teen's passion, he also "had insatiable curiosity about the world" around him....