First Generation is an on-going project about the first generation of Afro-French women of France.
In African immigration’s history of France, familiar reunifications happened between 1975 and 1980, making the young African descendants born in the country, the first Afro-French generation.
The project aims to speak about this national identity under construction through the life of these women and tries to understand how they are dealing with the incipient reference of their mixed origins while under a culture deeply anchored in its historical tradition.
“ I have always felt myself French, but they have remind me so much that I'm not French that I feel not French. I said, "I am Ivorian,” and, by this time, I hadn't set foot on the Ivory Cost yet. There is a lot of schizophrenia having these double cultures. And there are clashes, it will not set. We do everything to have it together, but it is not easy... We all have a moment that we deny France. I have denied France for a while”
Fatou Meité, 32, politician. Bondy, France.