Once We Were Warriors (1981–1999)

Overview

Omar Badsha’s work focuses on themes of identity, alienation and politics as associated with diverse histories of South Africa, specifically those overlooked by the western artistic canon. A series of black- and-white images, Once We Were Warriors: Women and Resistance in the South African Liberation Struggle (1982–1999), documents protest movements and political activism as well as some of the key individuals who fought for the abolition of apartheid. Badsha highlights the important and underreported stories of women in the anti-apartheid movement in his photographs, including Launch of new established ANC branch, Weinberg, Cape Town (1991), which centres young women and their families as foundational to the establishment of the branch.