Menka Gomis used to be born in France however has made up our minds his time lies in Senegal, the place his oldsters had been born.

The 39-year-old is a part of increasingly French Africans who’re escape France, blaming the get up in racism, discrimination and nationalism.

BBC Africa Perceptible has investigated this phenomenon – being known as a “silent exodus” – to determine why society like Mr Gomis are dissatisfied with past in France.

The Parisian arrange a little progress company that trade in applications, principally to Africa, aimed toward the ones short of to reconnect with their ancestral roots, and now has an place of work in Senegal.

“I was born in France. I grew up in France, and we know certain realities. There’s been a lot of racism. I was six and I was called the N-word at school. Every day,” Mr Gomis, who went to university within the southern port town of Marseille, tells the BBC International Provider.

“I may be French, but I also come from elsewhere.”

Mr Gomis’s mom moved to France when she used to be only a child and can’t perceive his motivation for escape crowd and buddies to progress to Senegal.

“I’m not just leaving for this African dream,” he explains, including this is a mix of duty he feels against his oldsters’ hometown and in addition alternative.

“Africa is like the Americas at the time of… the gold rush. I think it’s the continent of the future. It’s where there’s everything left to build, everything left to develop.”

The hyperlinks between France and Senegal – a principally Muslim nation and previous French colony, which used to be as soon as a key hub within the transatlantic slave business – are lengthy and sophisticated.

A contemporary BBC Africa Perceptible investigation met migrants in Senegal keen to chance their lives in unhealthy sea crossings to achieve Europe.

Lots of them finally end up in France the place, consistent with the French Administrative center for the Coverage of Refugee and Stateless Individuals (OFPRA), a document quantity sought asylum terminating yr.

Round 142,500 society carried out in overall, and a couple of 3rd of all requests for cover had been accredited.

It’s not cloudless what number of are opting for to do the opposite exit to Africa as French legislation prohibits accumulating information on race, faith and ethnicity.

However analysis means that extremely certified French electorate from Muslim backgrounds, regularly the kids of immigrants, are quietly emigrating.

The ones we met informed us attitudes against immigration had been hardening in France, with right-wing events wielding extra affect.

Since their appointment terminating year, High Minister Michel Barnier and Inner Minister Bruno Retailleau have pledged to break unwell on immigration, each prison and unlawful, by way of pushing for adjustments to the legislation locally and on the Eu degree.

Fanta Guirassy has lived in France all her past and runs her personal nursing observe in Villemomble – an outer-suburb of Paris – however she could also be making plans a exit to Senegal, the birthplace of her mom.

“Unfortunately, for quite a few years now in France, we’ve been feeling less and less safe. It’s a shame to say it, but that’s the reality,” the 34-year-old tells the BBC.

“Being a single mother and having a 15-year-old teenager means you always have this little knot in your stomach. You’re always afraid.”

Her serious warning call got here when her son used to be not too long ago forbidden and searched by way of the police as he used to be chatting to his buddies in the street.

“As a mother it’s quite traumatic. You see what happens on TV and you see it happen to others.”

In June terminating yr, riots erupted throughout France following the deadly capturing of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk – a French nationwide of Algerian descent who used to be shot by way of police.

The case remains to be being investigated, however the riots shook the society and mirrored an undercurrent of enrage that have been development for years over the best way ethnic minorities are handled in France.

A contemporary survey of twilight society in France recommended 91% of the ones puzzled have been sufferers of racial discrimination.

Within the wake of the riots, the UN Top Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) known as on France to deal with “issues of racial discrimination within its law enforcement agencies”.

The French international ministry brushed aside the complaint, pronouncing: “Any accusation of systemic racism or discrimination by the police in France is totally groundless. France and its police fight resolutely against racism and all forms of discrimination.”

Then again, consistent with French internal ministry statistics, racist crimes rose by way of a 3rd terminating yr, with greater than 15,000 recorded incidents according to race, faith or ethnicity.

For professor Audrey Monzemba, who’s of Congolese descent, such societal adjustments have “become very anxiety-provoking”.

Early one morning, we connect her on her trip thru a multicultural and working-class folk at the outskirts of Paris.

Together with her younger daughter, she makes her manner by way of bus and teach, however as she approaches the college the place she works, she discreetly eliminates her scarf below the hood of her coat.

In secular France, dressed in a hijab has grow to be vastly debatable and two decades in the past they had been restrained in all shape faculties – it is a part of the rationale Ms Monzemba desires to let fall France taking a look to exit to Senegal the place she has connections.

“I’m not saying that France isn’t for me. I’m just saying that what I want is to be able to thrive in an environment that respects my faith and my values. I want to go to work without having to remove my veil,” the 35-year-old says.

A contemporary survey of greater than 1,000 French Muslims who’ve left France to decide out of the country suggests this is a rising pattern.

It follows a height in Islamophobia within the wake of the 2015 assaults when Islamist gunmen killed 130 society in numerous places throughout Paris.

Ethical panics round secularism and process discrimination “are at the heart of this silent flight”, Olivier Esteves, one of the vital authors of the document France, You Love It However You Let go It, tells the BBC.

“Ultimately, this emigration from France constitutes a real brain-drain, as it is primarily highly educated French Muslims who decide to leave,” he says.

Whip Fatoumata Sylla, 34, whose oldsters are from Senegal, case in point.

“When my father left Africa to come here, he was looking for a better quality of life for his family in Africa. He would always tell us: ‘Don’t forget where you come from.'”

The tourism device developer, who’s shifting to Senegal after moth, says by way of moving to arrange a industry in West Africa, she is appearing she has now not forgotten her heritage – even though her brother Abdoul, who like her used to be born in Paris, isn’t satisfied.

“I’m worried about her. I hope she’ll do OK, but I don’t feel the need to reconnect with anything,” he tells the BBC.

“My culture and my family is here. Africa is the continent of our ancestors. But it’s not really ours because we weren’t there.

“I don’t suppose you’re going to search out some ancestral tradition, or an imaginary Wakanda,” he says, referring to the technologically advanced society featured in the Black Panther movies and comic books.

In Dakar, we met Salamata Konte, who founded the travel agency with Mr Gomis, to find out what awaits French Africans like her who are choosing to settle in Senegal.