10 TRAILBLAZERS OFFERING NEW VISIONS FOR THE FUTURE
SCOTLAND
Humza Yousaf
CHAMPIONING A NEW KIND OF NATIONALISM
On the afternoon of March 28, Humza Yousaf entered Bute House, the four-story Georgian townhouse in Edinburgh that serves as the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland. Earlier that day, he had been elected to that position by his peers in the Scottish Parliament, making him the first Muslim politician to lead a Western democracy, as well as the first non-white and youngest Scottish leader. He gazed up at a series of six portraits in the stairwell: the first of Donald Dewar, who became the inaugural First Minister in 1999; the fifth of Yousaf’s predecessor, Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s longest-serving leader. The final portrait was of a grinning Yousaf, sporting a trademark tartan tie.
“I really stand out because I look different,” the 38-year-old recalls when we meet five months later in St Andrew’s House, the headquarters of the Scottish government. “It was really emotional. I remember looking at it and thinking, almost whatever happens now… mine will always be the one that looks different.”
As proud as Yousaf
