English to French Art/Literary Idioms / Maxims / Sayings

Hello,

This phrase is used in Trevor Noah's book "Born a Crime". I've picked a passage to translate from his book for my class. The passage talks about how people living in townships of South Africa have a nickname for those that live on the richer side of the townships. They're not considered as poor as everyone else so they are nicknamed "cheese boys". This is because cheese also happened to be one of the most expensive things to come by in the townships. Having cheese in your food, even in your fridge, is a symbol of wealth for the kids. I'm trying to translate this phrase in French but it's really hard. I am a college student so my target audience is young adults in from age 18 and older. I'm also trying to target French speaking youth from West Africa (Senegal, Benin, Ivory Coast...).

This is a passage from the book:

"Cheese on a sandwich, cheese in your fridge, that meant you were living the good life. In any township in South Africa, if you had a bit of money, people would say, “Oh, you’re a cheese boy.” In essence: You’re not really hood because your family has enough money to buy cheese."

My first attempt was "un petit fromagé", but my professor believes I can come up with better and suggested "un fromageon". Fromageon is cheese that comes from an ewe, and after doing some research, I found that it tends to be more expensive than cheese from a cow.

Would this work or do you have any suggestions?

Thank you!