#InTheSpotlight Omar Badsha - Photographer, Artist

Omar Badsha was born in Durban in 1945 and grew up in a Gujarati Muslim family. His grandparents immigrated to South Africa from India in the late 1890s and the family forms part of the small, influential Gujarati Vhora Muslim community. His father, Ebrahim Badsha, was a pioneering artist and a major influence on his son’s artistic and political activities.In 1965 Badsha came under continued harassment by the security forces for his activism and was denied a passport to travel abroad to study. In the same year he submitted a small wood-cut to the Arts South Africa To-Day exhibition which was awarded the Sir Basil Shornland Prize. For the next eight years he exhibited extensively, winning a number of prizes for his works. Badsha, one of a few artists working outside the commercial white-dominated gallery circuit, refused to exhibit his works at segregated venues and state-sponsored international events. It was during this period that he met and developed a very close friendship with renowned artist Dumile Feni, who intermittently lived and worked with Badsha in Durban for about eight months before he left for London.