Menka Gomis was born in France but has decided that her future lies in Senegal, where her parents were born.
The 39-year-old man is part of a growing number of French Africans who are leaving France, citing growing apartheid, racism and nationalism.
BBC Africa Eye has investigated the incident – dubbed the “silent exit” – to find out why people like Mr Gomis are disillusioned with life in France.
The Parisian founded a small travel agency that offers packages, mainly in Africa, aimed at those who want to reconnect with their ancestral roots, and now they have an office in Senegal.
“I was born in France. I grew up in France, and we know some facts. There was a lot of discrimination. I was six years old and I was called the N-word at school. Every day,” Mr Gomis, who went to school in the southern port city of Marseille, told the BBC World Service.
“I may be French, but I'm also from somewhere else.”
Mr. Gomis' mother moved to France when he was young and he does not understand why she left family and friends for Senegal.
“I'm not just leaving this African dream,” he explained, adding that it's a mix of responsibility he feels for his parents' country and opportunity.
“Africa is like the Americas when…
The links between France and Senegal – a Muslim-majority country and former French colony, once a key hub for the trans-Atlantic slave trade – are long and complex.
A recent BBC Africa Eye investigation met migrants in Senegal who are willing to risk their lives on dangerous sea crossings to reach Europe.
Many of them ended up in France where, according to the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Immigrants (OFPRA), a record number sought asylum last year.
About 142,500 people applied in total, and about a third of all applications for protection were accepted.
It is not clear how many chose to make the trip back to Africa as French law prohibits the collection of information on race, religion and nationality.
But research shows that highly skilled French citizens from Muslim backgrounds, often the children of immigrants, are quietly migrating.
Those we met told us that the attitude towards immigration is getting stronger in France, with far-right groups in the ascendancy.
Since being appointed last month, Prime Minister Michel Barnier and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau have pledged to fight immigration, both legal and illegal, by pushing for changes to domestic and European law.
Fanta Guirassy has lived in France all her life and runs her own nursing practice in Villemomble – a suburb of Paris – but is also planning to move to Senegal, her mother's birthplace.
“Unfortunately, for a few years now in France, we've been feeling a little bit safer. It's a shame to say it, but that's the truth,” the 34-year-old told the BBC.
“Being a single mother and having a 15-year-old means you always have this little knot in your stomach. You're always afraid.”
He is said to have woken up when his son was recently stopped and searched by the police while talking to his friends on the street.
“As a mother, it's traumatic. You see what's happening on TV and you see it happening to others.”
In June last year, riots broke out across France following the shooting death of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk – a French-Algerian – who was shot by police.
The case is still under investigation, but the riots shook the nation and reflected years of anger at the way minorities are treated in France.
Returning home – BBC Africa Eye investigates the “silent exodus” of French Africans who leave France to reconnect with their roots.
Find it on iPlayer (UK only) or the BBC Africa YouTube channel (outside the UK)
A recent survey of black people in France revealed that 91% of those questioned had been victims of racial discrimination.
After the riots, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called on France to address “issues of racism within its legal frameworks”.
The French Foreign Ministry rejected the criticism, saying: “Any accusation of systematic racism or discrimination by the French police is completely unfounded. France and its police are firmly fighting racism and all forms of discrimination.”
However, according to figures from France's interior ministry, racist crimes rose by a third last year, with more than 15,000 recorded incidents based on race, religion or nationality.
For school teacher Audrey Monzemba, who is of Congolese origin, such changes in society “caused a lot of anxiety”.
One morning, we joined him on his commute through a multicultural and working-class community on the outskirts of Paris.
With her young daughter, she travels by bus and train, but as she approaches the school where she works, she discreetly removes a handkerchief from under the hem of her coat.
In France, wearing the hijab has become very controversial and 20 years ago they were banned from all public schools – part of the reason why Ms Monzemba wanted to leave France and move to Senegal where she is connected.
“I'm not saying that France doesn't suit me, I'm just saying that what I want is to be able to thrive in a place that respects my faith and my values. I want to go to work without being fired. my veil,” said the 35-year-old.
A recent survey of more than 1,000 French Muslims who have left France to live abroad suggests it is a growing trend.
This follows a spike in Islamophobia after the 2015 attacks in which Islamist gunmen killed 130 people in different parts of Paris.
Moral panic about nationalism and job discrimination are “the bees of this silent flight”, Olivier Esteves, one of the authors of the report France, You Love It But You Leave It, tells the BBC.
“In the end, this emigration from France constitutes a real brainstorm, as mainly the most educated French Muslims decided to leave,” he said.
Take the example of Fatoumata Sylla, 34, whose parents are from Senegal.
“When my father came here from Africa, he wanted a better life for his family in Africa. He always told us: 'Don't forget where you come from.'
The travel software developer, who is moving to Senegal next month, says that by setting up a business in West Africa, he is showing that he has not forgotten his roots – even though his brother Abdoul, who was born in Paris, is like him. make sure.
“I'm worried about him. I hope he'll do well, but I don't feel the need to get in touch with anything,” he told the BBC.
“My culture and my family are there, Africa is the continent of our ancestors. But it's not really ours because we weren't there.
“I don't think you're going to find an ancestral culture, or a fictional Wakanda,” he said, referring to the technologically advanced society depicted in the Black Panther movies and comic books.
In Dakar, we met with Salamata Konte, who founded a travel agency with Mr. Gomis, to find out what awaits French Africans like him who choose to settle in Senegal.
Ms Konte switched from a high-paying banking job in Paris to the Senegalese capital.
“When I came to Senegal three years ago, I was shocked to hear them calling me 'Frenchie',” said the 35-year-old player.
“I said to myself: 'Okay, yes, I was born in France, but I'm from Senegal like you.' So at the beginning, we have this feeling where we say to ourselves: 'Damn, I was rejected in France, and now I'm coming here and I'm rejected here too.'”
But his advice is: “You have to come here with humility and that's what I did.”
Regarding his experience as an entrepreneur, he says it has been “really difficult”.
“I often tell people that Senegalese men don't have women. They don't like to hear that, but I think it's true.
“They have trouble accepting that a woman can be the CEO of a company, that a woman can sometimes issue orders to certain people. I, as a woman, told the drunk driver: 'No, it's not normal for you to drink.'
“I think we should prove ourselves a bit.”
Nevertheless, Mr Gomis is happy as he awaits his Senegalese citizenship.
The travel agency is going well and he says he is already working on his next project – a Senegalese dating app.
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