We are so poor : an investigation into the lives of ten women living in an informal area in the Durban Functional Region with particular reference to the role of domestic fuels.

This dissertation explores the texture of women’s lives in an urban informal area,
with the particular aim of highlighting their use of domestic energies in the absence of their access to electricity.
The investigation into domestic fuel usage is situated within the context of other basic needs: shelter, water and food and the acquisition of these.
Each is separately explored. The domestic fuel sources used by the women were primarily paraffin and candles.
The dissertation argues that there is no simple equation between household income and fuel purchase
but that the acquisition of food and fuel are mutually dependent and contingent upon a complex set of variables
which include the perceived physical and emotional well-being of the woman and her household.

https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10413/6324/Annecke_Wendy_1992.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y