30/06/2025
We at the Ola team are very proud to announce and congratulate Ndumiso Sibanda for his new photographic exhibition Sands of Ngor currently on at The Sourcery Melville.
Sands of Ngor
Photographs by Ndumiso Sibanda
On the shores of Ngor Beach in Dakar, Senegal, men gather in sand and spirit. They wrestle not for spectacle, but for something older—honor, strength, memory. I’m drawn to warriors and their martial arts as a form of spirit, culture, and magnetic human force. There is enduring beauty in peak performance, in testing one's self.
But I also believe what cornerstones these practices is rooted in love—through communication, archiving, learning, teaching, and so on.
This is Laamb, Senegal’s national sport. A wrestling tradition passed through generations. In the grain of their muscles echoes a masculinity that is communal, disciplined, sacred.
Among them stands Djibril Ndir, known as Kherou Ngor—the Rock of Ngor. His presence anchors this series, not only as a symbol of resilience, but as a question:
What does it mean to be strong? What is strength?
This work is part of an ongoing reflection on masculinity in African social, spiritual, and physical traditions. In these spaces, I find not only the stories of others, but fragments of my own—a continued conversation I'm having about my role in the past, present, and the future of my line.
These prints were created as part of my process in preparing for exhibition. These unsigned prints are not part of a final edition and may contain unique qualities from the early stages of development.
