Préférence Nationale - Complete Study Material

By Fatou Diome

About the Author

Fatou Diome (1968 - ) is a French-Senegalese writer born in Niodior, Senegal. She published her collection of short stories, La Préférence nationale, in 2001, followed by her bestselling novel The Belly of the Atlantic. Her major themes include self-determination, exile, and ostracism. Her writing style is distinctly influenced by the rhythms of oral African literature, bringing a unique voice to contemporary French literature.

Diome has lectured at Marc Bloch University in Strasbourg and at the Institute of Pedagogy in Karlsruhe, Germany. She also presents cultural and literary television programmes on French television. Currently, she resides in Strasbourg, France, bridging two worlds through her life and work.

Summary of the Story

Préférence Nationale is a powerful autobiographical narrative that exposes the harsh realities of racial discrimination and xenophobia faced by African immigrants in France. The story follows a Black African woman married to a French citizen who struggles to find employment despite having French qualifications.

The narrative opens with the narrator explaining a new law introduced by "Mr Borders" (a personification of national boundaries) that extends the waiting period for citizenship benefits to two years for those married to French citizens. This policy aims to strain relationships and deny rights to foreign spouses. Ironically, while she cannot obtain citizenship, her Senegalese cat has papers—perhaps because he's ginger, she notes sarcastically.

The narrator encounters two humiliating job-seeking experiences:

1. The Bakery Job: She applies for a salesgirl position at a large bakery. The owner, described with "a German moustache, an Alsace accent and a hat in the colours of the French flag," immediately displays racial bias. When she cannot speak Alsatian dialect, he cruelly asks, "Why don't you go and work in your own country?" This triggers an internal monologue where she reflects on France's colonial exploitation of Africa—the forced cultivation of cash crops, the plundering of resources, and the use of Africans as cannon fodder in European wars.
2. The Tutoring Job: She responds to an advertisement for a French tutor requiring a degree. After meeting the prospective employer, a supermarket cashier, in a café and presenting her credentials, the woman dismisses her, saying, "I want a European-type person" and "I don't want anyone messing up my child's education." The narrator leaves without paying for her drink, calling it "travel expenses," and delivers a cutting response about the woman's own lack of qualifications. When the cashier yells, "Go back to your jungle!"—the same phrase her mother-in-law once used—the narrator retorts with a comment about fresh air and facelifts.

The story powerfully illustrates how systemic racism operates through both official policies and everyday discrimination, revealing the gap between stated values of equality and the lived reality of immigrants in France.

Character Sketches

The Narrator (Protagonist)

• Identity: A Black African woman married to a French citizen, highly educated with French qualifications
• Personality: Intelligent, resilient, dignified, and sharp-witted; possesses a strong sense of self-worth despite constant humiliation
• Struggles: Faces systematic discrimination in employment despite being qualified; deals with the frustration of having her credentials dismissed due to race
• Voice: Uses bitter humor and sarcasm as coping mechanisms; has a keen awareness of colonial history and its ongoing impact
• Internal conflict: Balances the need for survival (finding work) with maintaining her dignity in the face of racist rejection
• Strength: Refuses to be silenced or diminished; delivers powerful retorts that expose the hypocrisy of her discriminators

The French Friend

• Role: Represents well-meaning but oblivious French citizens
• Characteristics: Supportive on the surface but lacks understanding of the narrator's lived experience as a Black immigrant
• Significance: Embodies the privilege of never having to face discrimination; cannot comprehend why the narrator would take a job "beneath" her qualifications
• Quote: "Are you nuts? You could do better than that."
• Blind spot: Has "no awareness of what life here was like" for the narrator

The Bakery Owner

• Appearance: German moustache, Alsace accent, wearing a hat in French flag colors—ironically, not ethnically French himself
• Personality: Overtly racist, unwelcoming, hostile
• Behavior: Stares at the narrator disapprovingly ("didn't like chocolate in the flesh"), demands she speak Alsatian dialect, asks the most humiliating question: "Why don't you go and work in your own country?"
• Symbolism: Represents "préférence nationale" in action—the everyday enforcement of discriminatory policies by small employers
• Hypocrisy: Despite likely being of immigrant descent himself (German-Alsatian), he enforces French nationalism

The Supermarket Cashier (Madame)

• Profession: Works as a cashier at a Strasbourg supermarket
• Education: Has not passed her degree, yet seeks a tutor for her daughter
• Prejudice: Refuses to hire the narrator saying, "I want a European-type person" and "I don't want anyone messing up my child's education"
• Behavior: Becomes aggressive when confronted, yells "Go back to your jungle!" when the narrator leaves without paying
• Significance: Represents how people without superior qualifications use race to maintain a false sense of superiority
• Irony: Despite her limited education, she rejects a qualified tutor based solely on race

"Mr Borders"

• Nature: A personification/symbol rather than an actual character
• Represents: National boundaries, immigration policies, and the French government's restrictive laws
• Function: The architect of discriminatory legislation designed to deny rights and break up mixed marriages
• Impact: Creates the legal framework that enables the discrimination the narrator faces

The Narrator's Mother-in-Law

• Brief appearance: Mentioned only in comparison
• Significance: Represents racism within the family unit; has used the same racist phrase as strangers ("Go back to your jungle!")
• Impact: Shows that discrimination comes from all quarters, even from those who should be family

Answers to Study Questions

a. What change did 'Mr Borders' bring to the process of granting French citizenship?

Mr Borders (symbolizing national boundaries and restrictive immigration policies) introduced a law that extended the waiting period for citizenship benefits from immediate access to two years for individuals married to French citizens. This change was designed to strain relationships and ultimately break them up, leaving foreign spouses without rights—not even the right to earn an honest living. The policy deliberately uses time as a weapon to test and undermine mixed marriages.

b. 'My Senegalese cat has his papers. Perhaps it's because he's ginger.' Comment on the satire in the statement.

This statement is bitterly satirical and exposes the absurdity and cruelty of racial discrimination. The narrator highlights that her pet cat—a Senegalese cat, no less—has official documentation while she, a qualified human being, cannot obtain citizenship. The suggestion that the cat's ginger color (resembling whiteness) gives it preferential treatment powerfully mocks how race, rather than merit or humanity, determines who is accepted in French society. The satire cuts deep: even an animal receives better treatment than a Black person simply based on appearance.

c. What role do ordinary people play in the enforcement of laws? How does the author establish this?

The author argues that discriminatory laws only become truly effective when ordinary citizens actively apply them. She establishes this through powerful metaphors: "Termites can cause the collapse of African mahogany trees, and the size of an anthill depends on the number of worker ants." These images illustrate how small, individual actions accumulate into massive systemic oppression. She then explicitly states: "It is thus the small employers who make the policy of preference nationale effective." The bakery owner and the cashier are not government officials, yet they enforce racial exclusion through hiring decisions, making the policy real and devastating in everyday life.

d. What advertisement did the narrator come across in the free papers?

The narrator found an advertisement that read: "Large bakery in the city centre looking for salesgirl. Dialect desirable. Please come to the shop." The requirement for "dialect" (Alsatian) would later be used as a pretext for racial discrimination.

e. Why did the author's French friend try to discourage her from applying for the job at the bakery?

The French friend discouraged her because she thought the narrator was overqualified for such a position. She protested, "You could do better than that. I've the same qualifications as you and I'm finishing my teacher training. You'll be bored selling bread and pastries all day!" The friend viewed it as a waste of the narrator's talents and education. However, this response revealed the friend's privilege and lack of understanding—she couldn't comprehend the barriers her Black friend faced in the job market despite having identical qualifications.

f. What were the author's reasons for applying for the job at the bakery?

The narrator applied for the job out of sheer necessity and survival. Despite having French qualifications, she explained: "My qualifications may be French, sweetie, but my brain isn't recognized as such, and so is not allowed to function. And in the meantime I have to eat. At least selling bread I won't starve." She was willing to take any job, regardless of being overqualified, because racial discrimination prevented her from obtaining employment matching her education level. Survival trumped pride.

g. How does the author highlight the racial bias of the owner of the bakery?

The author uses vivid descriptive details and narrative observation to expose the owner's racism:

• Physical description: "Apart from the chocolate cakes, everything was white" (symbolizing the racial homogeneity the owner preferred)
• The owner's appearance: "German moustache, an Alsace accent and a hat in the colours of the French flag" (ironic given his own non-French heritage)
• His immediate reaction: "From the way he stared at me, I knew I hadn't made it through the qualifying round"
• The pointed observation: "This man didn't like chocolate in the flesh" (using food metaphor for skin color)
• His ultimate humiliation: "Why don't you go and work in your own country?"

The progression from hostile stare to explicit rejection shows racism operating at first sight, before qualifications even matter.

h. 'I hadn't made it through the qualifying round.' What does the narrator mean by the expression 'qualifying round'?

This sports metaphor refers to the initial visual assessment—the moment when the bakery owner first saw her Black face. Before she could speak, present qualifications, or demonstrate ability, she was already disqualified based solely on her race. The "qualifying round" was simply being white, a test she could never pass. It's a bitterly ironic use of meritocratic language to describe a system that operates purely on racial prejudice, where actual qualifications are irrelevant.

i. What did the bakery owner demand?

The bakery owner asked if she could speak Alsatian dialect, knowing this would serve as a convenient pretext for rejection. When she honestly answered "No, sir," it provided him with a seemingly legitimate reason to refuse her employment, though the real reason was obviously her race.

j. What was the white bakery owner's most humiliating question?

The most humiliating question was: "Why don't you go and work in your own country?" This question was designed to both justify his refusal and degrade her, questioning her very right to exist and seek livelihood in France, despite her marriage to a French citizen and her French qualifications.

k. What did the narrator think when the bakery owner humiliated her?

The narrator had a powerful internal response, though she remained outwardly composed. She thought: "You ought to be asking me why I even want your stinking job." She then mentally recounted the colonial exploitation: France impoverished African soil by forcing cash crop cultivation (sugarcane and peanuts), plundered African resources to enrich itself, and used Africans as cannon fodder in European wars—wars fought for a freedom France denied to Africans in their own land. This internal monologue reveals her acute historical consciousness and her understanding that her presence in France is a consequence of France's colonial presence in Africa.

l. What was the second job the narrator applied for?

The second job was a tutoring position. The advertisement read: "Tutor required for French lessons. Degree essential. Call after 7 p.m." This position seemed perfect for her qualifications and should have been well within her capabilities.

m. How would the narrator identify the cashier at the Strasbourg supermarket?

The cashier told her she would be wearing "a white jersey with blue stripes" at the city-centre café where they agreed to meet. The narrator spotted her immediately based on this description.

n. Why didn't the narrator mention the second ad to her friend?

The narrator chose not to tell her friend because she knew the friend would ask about the bakery experience and wouldn't believe what actually happened. The friend's previous inability to understand the narrator's reality made her an unsatisfying confidante. The narrator realized that explaining the racial discrimination she faced would either be met with disbelief or unhelpful optimism, so she kept this job search to herself.

o. What does the narrator mean by the words 'when it's time to cash up, national preference is nowhere to be seen'?

When the waiter approached to take her order in the café, calling her "madame" respectfully, the narrator observed the irony: businesses want her money and treat her as a customer with purchasing power, but refuse to hire her as an employee. "National preference" disappears when there's profit to be made. The phrase "cash up" refers to the moment of commercial transaction—when it's time to sell and make money, racial discrimination temporarily vanishes, exposing the economic hypocrisy underlying préférence nationale.

p. How does the narrator respond to the cashier's racist comment?

When the cashier rejects her saying she wants "a European-type person" and later yells "Go back to your jungle!", the narrator responds with dignified defiance:

1. She first delivers a cutting observation: "If you had what I have between my ears, you wouldn't be working as a supermarket cashier"—highlighting that the less-qualified woman is judging her superior.
2. She leaves without paying for her drink, calling it "travel expenses," adding: "Being a cashier, you'll know that everything must be paid for, even the services of coloureds, as you call us."
3. When told to go back to her jungle, she retorts: "You should come with me, for the fresh air in the jungle. It's revitalizing—and would save you a facelift."

Her responses combine intellectual superiority, economic commentary, and sharp wit, refusing to be diminished while exposing the absurdity and hypocrisy of her discriminator.

Themes

1. Racial Discrimination and Xenophobia: The systematic exclusion of qualified immigrants based on skin color
2. Colonial Legacy: How historical exploitation creates present-day migration and resentment
3. Hypocrisy of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité: The gap between French national values and reality
4. Identity and Belonging: The struggle to find place in a society that rejects you
5. Economic Exploitation: How capitalism uses racial preference selectively
6. Dignity in the Face of Humiliation: The narrator's refusal to internalize racist treatment
7. Systemic vs. Individual Racism: How laws enable everyday discrimination

Literary Devices

• Personification: "Mr Borders" represents immigration policy
• Metaphor: Termites and ants illustrate collective oppression; "chocolate in the flesh" for Black skin
• Irony: The cat has papers; the waiter is respectful when selling; the bakery owner isn't ethnically French
• Satire: Mocking racial discrimination through exaggerated observations
• Internal Monologue: Revealing thoughts versus outward composure
• Symbolism: The French flag hat, the white bakery, the "white jersey with blue stripes"