Menka Gomis was born in France, but decided that his future lay in Senegal, where his parents were born.

The 39-year-old is among a growing number of African French who are leaving France, blaming the rise of racism, discrimination and nationalism.

BBC Africa Eye investigated this phenomenon – dubbed the ‘silent exodus’ – to find out why people like Mr Gomis are disillusioned with life in France.

The Parisian has set up a small travel agency that offers packages, mainly to Africa, aimed at those who want to reconnect with ancestral roots, and now has an office in Senegal.

“I was born in France. I grew up in France and we know certain realities. There was a lot of racism. I was six years old and I was called the N-word at school. Every day,” Mr. Gomis, who went to school in the city- southern port of Marseille, says the BBC World Service.

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

Mr. Gomis’s mother moved to France when he was just a child and cannot understand his motivation for leaving family and friends to go to Senegal.

“I’m not leaving just for this African dream,” he explains, adding that it’s a mixture of responsibility he feels towards his parents’ homeland and also opportunity.

“Africa is like America at the time of the… gold rush. I think it is the continent of the future. It is there where everything is still to be built, everything that remains to be developed”.

The ties between France and Senegal – a predominantly Muslim country and former French colony that was once a key hub in the transatlantic slave trade – are long and complex.

A recent BBC Africa Eye investigation found migrants in Senegal willing to risk their lives in dangerous sea crossings to reach Europe.

Many of them end up in France, where, according to the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA), a record number of asylum applications last year.

About 142,500 people applied in total and about a third of all applications for protection were accepted.

It is unclear how many choose to make the reverse journey to Africa, as French law prohibits the collection of data on race, religion and ethnicity.

But research suggests that highly skilled French citizens from Muslim backgrounds, often the children of immigrants, are quietly emigrating.

Those we met told us that attitudes towards immigration are hardening in France, with right-wing parties gaining more influence.

Since their appointment last month, Prime Minister Michel Barnier and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau have pledged to clamp down on immigration, both legal and illegal, pushing for changes to the law at home and across Europe.