Overcoming barriers to food access: A Case study of Congolese Refugees in Durban, South Africa

Over the past decades, the number of refugees in South Africa has increased significantly. The Congolese people form a considerable number of these refugees in South Africa. These Congolese refugees were compelled by security concerns to flee their nation of origin, thus losing their source of income and other cultural identities that were important drivers of food access. The previous research on Congolese refugees focused attention on overcoming barriers to socio-economic opportunities in Durban. The later reveals that, xenophobic attitudes and fierce competition from South Africans with low incomes for scarce resources limit Congolese refugees from having access to socioeconomic opportunities. In addition to this, literature on food insecurity reported that the Congolese refugees were exposed to food regime change with the scarcity of home food in Durban. None of these studies have provided or explained the overcoming barriers to food access given those challenges among the Congolese refugees in Durban. To unpack this paucity of knowledge in the literature, the researcher used the qualitative method, which allowed for the collection of rich data. This included participant observations and individual interviews (storytelling) with 20 Congolese refugee households. The findings revealed a limited number of ways to overcome barriers to food access, including participating in indigenous livestock and cash crop practices, mobile food markets, and informal neighbourhood stores likely to provide home food. These overcoming strategies limited the growing food deprivation caused by the sus-mentioned challenges experienced by the Congolese refugees in Durban. Thus, the South African government should encourage and protect the survival initiatives of refugees.