Lebanese Syrian migration to Afrique Occidentale Française (AOF) or French West Africa (1895–1958) increased significantly during the French mandate in Syria and Lebanon (1920–1946). Kamel Mroueh, a Lebanese Syrian publisher, expressed concern in his 1938 travelogue Nahnu fi Ifriqya (We Are in Africa) that at least fifty percent of migrant children from his community in Dakar and the rest of Senegal didn't know Arabic. Instead, they understood French, English, and some languages spoken by Africans, such as Wolof, Serer, or Mande. Mroueh's lamentation points to the layered relationship between race, empire, and migration between the Levant and West Africa, as well as the intersections and divergences between his racial ideology and French colonial racial orderings. While French and European colonial ideas of race and raciality were influential in the Levant and broader Middle East in the early twentieth century, this paper argues that they are only part of the story of race in Nahnu Fi Ifriqya. Through a close reading of Mroueh's travelogue, the paper contextualizes French and European influences on Lebanese Syrian ideas of race and raciality in the 1930s by showing how these ideologies fit into local histories of racial identity-making by Lebanese Syrians, Arabs, and Middle Easterners in the global diaspora. Mroueh's racial ideas were not representative of all Lebanese Syrians of the period but analyzing his observations of African cultures and the Lebanese Syrian community in West Africa in the 1930s provides an opening into how the processes of race-making unfolded amongst Lebanese Syrians under French imperialism. The paper highlights how the Lebanese Syrian community in West Africa negotiated their racial identity within a complex web of colonial and local discourses of race. By shedding light on the experiences and perspectives of Lebanese Syrian migrants in West Africa, this paper aims to enrich our understanding of the dynamics of race, empire, and migration in the early twentieth century.