Menka Gomis was born in France however has determined his future lies in Senegal, the place his mother and father have been born.
The 39-year-old is a part of an growing variety of French Africans who’re leaving France, blaming the rise in racism, discrimination and nationalism.
BBC Africa Eye has investigated this phenomenon – being known as a “silent exodus” – to search out out why individuals like Mr Gomis are disillusioned with life in France.
The Parisian arrange a small journey company that provides packages, primarily to Africa, geared toward these eager to reconnect with their ancestral roots, and now has an workplace in Senegal.
“I used to be born in France. I grew up in France, and we all know sure realities. There’s been plenty of racism. I used to be six and I used to be known as the N-word in school. Daily,” Mr Gomis, who went to highschool within the southern port metropolis of Marseille, tells the BBC World Service.
“I could also be French, however I additionally come from elsewhere.”
Mr Gomis’s mom moved to France when she was only a child and can’t perceive his motivation for leaving household and associates to go to Senegal.
“I am not simply leaving for this African dream,” he explains, including it’s a combination of accountability he feels in the direction of his mother and father’ homeland and likewise alternative.
“Africa is just like the Americas on the time of… the gold rush. I believe it is the continent of the long run. It is the place there’s every thing left to construct, every thing left to develop.”
The hyperlinks between France and Senegal – a primarily Muslim nation and former French colony, which was as soon as a key hub within the transatlantic slave commerce – are lengthy and complicated.
A current BBC Africa Eye investigation met migrants in Senegal keen to threat their lives in harmful sea crossings to succeed in Europe.
A lot of them find yourself in France the place, in keeping with the French Workplace for the Safety of Refugee and Stateless Individuals (OFPRA), a report quantity sought asylum final yr.
Round 142,500 individuals utilized in whole, and a few third of all requests for cover have been accepted.
It’s not clear what number of are selecting to do the reverse journey to Africa as French legislation prohibits gathering information on race, faith and ethnicity.
However analysis means that extremely certified French residents from Muslim backgrounds, typically the kids of immigrants, are quietly emigrating.
These we met advised us attitudes in the direction of immigration have been hardening in France, with right-wing events wielding extra affect.
Since their appointment final month, Prime Minister Michel Barnier and Inside Minister Bruno Retailleau have pledged to crack down on immigration, each authorized and unlawful, by pushing for adjustments to the legislation domestically and on the European degree.
Fanta Guirassy has lived in France all her life and runs her personal nursing follow in Villemomble – an outer-suburb of Paris – however she can be planning a transfer to Senegal, the birthplace of her mom.
“Sadly, for fairly just a few years now in France, we’ve been feeling much less and fewer protected. It’s a disgrace to say it, however that’s the fact,” the 34-year-old tells the BBC.
“Being a single mom and having a 15-year-old teenager means you at all times have this little knot in your abdomen. You’re at all times afraid.”
Her wake-up name got here when her son was just lately stopped and searched by the police as he was chatting to his associates on the road.
“As a mom it is fairly traumatic. You see what occurs on TV and also you see it occur to others.”
In June final yr, riots erupted throughout France following the deadly taking pictures of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk – a French nationwide of Algerian descent who was shot by police.
The case remains to be being investigated, however the riots shook the nation and mirrored an undercurrent of anger that had been constructing for years over the way in which ethnic minorities are handled in France.
Homecoming – BBC Africa Eye investigates the “silent exodus” of French Africans leaving France for good to reconnect with their roots.
Discover it on iPlayer (UK solely) or on the BBC Africa YouTube channel (exterior the UK)
A current survey of black individuals in France urged 91% of these questioned had been victims of racial discrimination.
Within the wake of the riots, the UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) known as on France to handle “problems with racial discrimination inside its legislation enforcement businesses”.
The French overseas ministry dismissed the criticism, saying: “Any accusation of systemic racism or discrimination by the police in France is completely groundless. France and its police struggle resolutely in opposition to racism and all types of discrimination.”
Nevertheless, in keeping with French inside ministry statistics, racist crimes rose by a 3rd final yr, with greater than 15,000 recorded incidents primarily based on race, faith or ethnicity.
For schoolteacher Audrey Monzemba, who’s of Congolese descent, such societal adjustments have “turn out to be very anxiety-provoking”.
Early one morning, we be a part of her on her commute by a multicultural and working-class group on the outskirts of Paris.
Together with her younger daughter, she makes her method by bus and prepare, however as she approaches the varsity the place she works, she discreetly removes her scarf beneath the hood of her coat.
In secular France, carrying a hijab has turn out to be massively controversial and 20 years in the past they have been banned in all state colleges – it’s a part of the rationale Ms Monzemba desires to go away France trying to transfer to Senegal the place she has connections.
“I’m not saying that France isn’t for me. I’m simply saying that what I need is to have the ability to thrive in an atmosphere that respects my religion and my values. I need to go to work with out having to take away my veil,” the 35-year-old says.
A current survey of greater than 1,000 French Muslims who’ve left France to settle overseas suggests it’s a rising development.
It follows a peak in Islamophobia within the wake of the 2015 assaults when Islamist gunmen killed 130 individuals in varied places throughout Paris.
Ethical panics round secularism and job discrimination “are on the coronary heart of this silent flight”, Olivier Esteves, one of many authors of the report France, You Love It However You Go away It, tells the BBC.
“In the end, this emigration from France constitutes an actual brain-drain, as it’s primarily extremely educated French Muslims who determine to go away,” he says.
Take Fatoumata Sylla, 34, whose mother and father are from Senegal, for example.
“When my father left Africa to come back right here, he was searching for a greater high quality of life for his household in Africa. He would at all times inform us: ‘Don’t neglect the place you come from.'”
The tourism software program developer, who’s shifting to Senegal subsequent moth, says by going to arrange a enterprise in West Africa, she is displaying she has not forgotten her heritage – although her brother Abdoul, who like her was born in Paris, is just not satisfied.
“I’m apprehensive about her. I hope she’ll do OK, however I do not really feel the necessity to reconnect with something,” he tells the BBC.
“My tradition and my household is right here. Africa is the continent of our ancestors. However it’s not likely ours as a result of we weren’t there.
“I do not assume you are going to discover some ancestral tradition, or an imaginary Wakanda,” he says, referring to the technologically superior society featured within the Black Panther motion pictures and comedian books.
In Dakar, we met Salamata Konte, who based the journey company with Mr Gomis, to search out out what awaits French Africans like her who’re selecting to settle in Senegal.
Ms Konte swapped a high-paying banking job in Paris for the Senegalese capital.
“Once I arrived in Senegal three years in the past I used to be shocked to listen to them name me ‘Frenchie’,” the 35-year-old says.
“I stated to myself: ‘OK, sure, certainly, I used to be born in France, however I am Senegalese such as you.’ So at first, we’ve this sense the place we are saying to ourselves: ‘Rattling, I used to be rejected in France, and now I am coming right here and I am additionally rejected right here.'”
However her recommendation is: “You must come right here with humility and that is what I did.”
As for her expertise as a businesswoman, she says it has been “actually tough”.
“I typically inform folks that Senegalese males are misogynistic. They do not like to listen to that, however I believe it is true.
“They’ve a tough time accepting {that a} lady could be a CEO of an organization, {that a} lady can generally give ‘orders’ to sure individuals, that I, as a lady, can inform a driver who was late: ‘No, it isn’t regular that you just’re late.’
“I believe we’ve to show ourselves a bit of extra.”
Nonetheless, Mr Gomis is happy as he awaits his Senegalese citizenship.
The journey company goes properly and he says he’s already engaged on his subsequent enterprise – a courting app for Senegal.
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