Food access among Congolese refugees living in Durban: a market approach.

Abstract

A market-based method is used in the current study to examine food access among Congolese refugees in Durban. An ethnographic qualitative research design allows for the achievement of this goal. Twenty purposively chosen key informants participated in semi-structured interviews and participant observation to provide rich information. Participant observation involved participating in food shopping activities and observing how Congolese refugees can access food and which market venue is the most frequented. The research findings show that refugee households have limited access to food choices despite the diversified food sources (formal and informal). Three factors influenced this limitation. First, the refugee’s household financial capability (income) prevents the informants from formally purchasing local food. Secondly, most local foods were unfamiliar to the informants, and they needed to associate them with their home foodstuffs. Thirdly, due to affordable food costs, the informants prefer sourcing some of the local foodstuffs informally. Informal purchases demonstrate the possibility of obtaining local foods and the informants’ home food for less than formal purchases. This appeal for home food resides in the physical and emotional well-being, and the lack of options to acquire it formally and regularly outside their social networks makes this an issue of inadequacy. This ability to negotiate for food informally shows strong social connections and the ability to gather information related to food sourcing among Congolese refugees. A few techniques for adjusting to the formal market system to commercialise their culture. Congolese refugees (informants) also demonstrate a desire to obtain sustenance on the side through cash crops. This mechanism for food remains high in low-income refugees’ households because of social ties and the possibility of getting credit for food choices. Thus, to whom the food cash or credits it is acquired matters for these Congolese refugees even though this advantage does not satisfy the households adequately. Besides cash crops, the informants approached the formal market by choosing cheap food, sometimes less referred ones, and cut off some meals for serving purposes. All those strategies were used to cope with poor income and high prices over certain service deliveries, such as housing costs, which appeared to stunt the informants’ ability to access food.