Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 2, No. 4 | A conversation with South African photographer, Omar Badsh, page 2 (low bandwidth)

Then, in 1982 I helped establish Afrapix, an independent photographic agency and collective, which played a leading role in shaping the social documentary photography tradition and in creating a record of the popular struggles of the 1980s.

In 1984, my book on life in the large informal settlements of Inanda, outside Durban, was published. I had been active in establishing the first residents associations in the Amouti section of the community there.

In the 1980s, I also headed the photographic unit of the Second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Development in Southern Africa and then edited the book on life in South Africa in the 1980’s, titled "South Africa: The Cordoned Heart." The exhibition traveled internationally for ten years to all the major centers in America.

KAPUR: What work are you most proud of?

BADSHA: I don’t think I can say I am most proud of one particular piece of work. Each project that an artist takes on has some significance for him or her. But I think as a body of work, my photography has taken on a new meaning and become of historical significance today. My photographs have documented the growth of the democratic movement in South Africa over the years when there was very little documentation.

KAPUR: You said you have recently established SAHO, South Africa History Online. Tell us about your new project.

BADSHA: South African History Online (SAHO) is a nonpartisan people’s history project. It was established in 1999 as a not-for-profit organization, to promote research, popularize South African history and address the biased way in which the history and cultural heritage of black South Africans has been represented in our educational and heritage institutions. We have many current projects—a schools project, a community project and exhibitions, publications and cultural programs.

The publication of a new history curriculum for schools on SAHO’s web site is the mainstay of its schools program. In addition, SAHO organizes traveling exhibitions that visit schools and also runs workshops for history teachers. The project encourages schools to undertake local history projects, such as the recording of the lives of those South Africans who played a role in the struggle for freedom and democracy. The schools program also produces books, posters and CD-ROMs on aspects of South African history for students and teachers.

The aim of SAHO’s community-based program is to provide communities with assistance and training to undertake oral history projects and in the use of Internet technology to tell their own and community histories. The project also aims to urge communities to carry out research about their oral histories and to assist them in marketing their heritage sites and local festivals.

SAHO has initiated a Lives of Courage Campaign, that aims to build an online “Wall of Remembrance,” and to involve communities—and more specifically, school children—in assisting with the compilation of this information. The online “Wall of Remembrance” will include information on people who were imprisoned, banned, banished, detained, executed (in prison or by security forces), died in exile or in action within the country and who played a leading role in trade union, women’s, youth and liberation organizations.

SAHO also sponsors exhibitions, publications and cultural programs. We have developed an innovative arts and cultural program which has made us one of the leading non-governmental organizations in this area. Our flagship project is our web site, which includes information on artists and their work, the history of arts organizations, movements and cultural heritage. The web site regularly features the work of South African artists and photographers in the form of a web gallery accompanied by commentary and biographical details about the artists. SAHO also has an Africa-to-Africa Cultural Exchange Program. Through this program, SAHO works with the Department of Foreign Affairs to promote cultural links within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world. Many contacts with arts institutions in other African countries have already been established and copies of related publications have been donated to 150 libraries on the continent.

SAHO organizes a bi-annual photographic festival of the work of African photographers. In 2002, fifty exhibitions were displayed in Johannesburg and Pretoria. We also held a photography related conference, which was attended by students from Natal University, University of the Western Cape and three Gauteng Technikons.

SAHO also promotes the work of South African artists locally and overseas through a publishing and exhibitions program. In partnership with local and international partners, we have produced a series of books on history, culture and photography. These can be found on our web site.

KAPUR: It takes a lot of courage and persistence to accomplish what you have in South Africa? Do you have any plans to mark the country’s 10 years of multi-racial democracy?

BADSHA: I am planning to produce an exhibition of photographs and publish a book documenting the transition to the new democratic, non-racial South Africa. The exhibit, titled Seedtimes: South African Democracy 1994 - 2004 will consist of 250 images made up of between 10 to 20 photographic essays by leading South African photographers looking at South Africa today and tracing its transition to democracy.

We hope to show this exhibit in South Africa soon and travel with it to a few selected global cities after that. Carnegie Corporation has very kindly supported this project.

KAPUR: How do you think the new-found freedom in South Africa is affecting artists? For instance, do you see any difference between their work in the 1980s and now?

BADSHA: South Africa has an extremely liberal Constitution when it comes to freedom of expression. The country also has a dedicated Department of Arts Culture and though it is not yet very effective because of budgetary constraints, it is an important starting point to have a department specifically set up to promote South African arts and culture.

Next page: “There is also an independent National Arts Council in the country. Most government funding for the arts goes through this body.

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