Alone in Azerbaijan: My Experience as a Black Solo Female Traveller in the Land of Fire

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I love solo travel; in fact, I prefer it. I believe everyone should take at least one solo trip at some point in their lives. When I pick a country I want to visit, I never listen to anyone’s opinion; if I want to go, I WILL go. And while I don’t regret visiting Azerbaijan (it was a new place to discover, after all), it is not a country I recommend for black females travelling solo. Here’s why.

I was not afraid to go to Azerbaijan alone, and I didn’t really have any expectations about this little-known country. I’m not into Formula 1 or the history of oil, so I didn’t really do any research. To be honest, there was a campaign on flights and I thought to myself hmmm… I’ve never been here before , and that was that. Booked. However, I have been living in Turkey for the last 4 years, and from what I had heard, Azerbaijan was very similar, and “basically like Turkey”. Well, it was and it wasn’t.

Culturally, yes, they are very similar, and I was able to practice my Turkish and become the unofficial translator at the hostel where I stayed. But for me, that was where the similarities ended. The people were VERY different, and I should have done more research on my own. The only expectation that I did have was that people would be curious about me and want to take photos. What is this black woman doing in our country?! Pretty harmless stuff, and I’m used to it. But what I experienced went far beyond.

I started my trip in Ganja, the second largest city (very surprising). I would definitely skip this city. Not many tourists visit, and there’s not much to do. But, it was where my flight was going, and from the moment I stepped foot in the airport it was a horrible experience. The customs officials questioned me for about an hour (5 or 6 of them), and very nearly didn’t let me in because “I didn’t look like my passport photo”. Let me be clear, that photo is almost 10 years old, but I still have same hairstyle (that’s how little I’ve changed). Yes, my face is slimmer, but doesn’t everyone go through some weight changes over the course of 10 years? I couldn’t believe it! This had never happened to me before. They asked me for all the photo ID I had to compare the pictures. They took my Canadian driver’s license, health card, Turkish residence permit, and even asked me to open my social media. They were even pointing out the shape of my eyebrow?! A bit excessive, if you ask me. It felt like a huge invasion of privacy to open my social media, and maybe they were “just doing their job”, but what made me angry is that one of the officials was LAUGHING. It was like she was just doing it because she could. At that point, I was hoping they would just turn me away, because I didn’t even want to visit anymore. So I guess you could say my first impression of Azerbaijan wasn’t great.

I finally got to my hostel and thought OK, brush it off, tomorrow is a new day! It will be so much better. Boy, was I wrong. The next morning, even before I stepped outside, I came across a mother and son duo who were snickering behind their hands and looking at me. I am not a confrontational person in the slightest. But after the day before, I had NO patience. I turned around and asked them “Do you have problem? Is there something funny? Why are you laughing?”. This is pretty much as far as I can get in Turkish when it comes to these situations, and people usually back off and deny it. This continued all morning. I almost got into so many fights (if you knew me, you would know how shocking this is). I was surprised at how rude (not curious) people were.

The cherry on top: Another two of the people that I came across that morning actually followed me! I weaved in and out of the park, going in random directions just to make sure I wasn’t being paranoid, and every time I sat down in a different place, there they were. I wasn’t even scared, I was more appalled than anything. What is wrong with these people? Even after I snapped a photo and confronted them, they still followed me for a bit. I thought that many men in Turkey had no concept of boundaries but WOW, these men in Azerbaijan were something else. Eventually, I just went back to my hostel, ordered delivery, and Netflix’ed the day away. Your girl was mentally exhausted.

BLACK LADIES, IF YOU GO TO GANJA, BE PREPARED TO FIGHT!

Next destination: BAKU

 When I arrived to Baku, it was like night and day compared to Ganja. It was like being in a typical European city. There were a lot of tourists, most people were friendly, and even the police officers were so kind to me! So I decided to spend the rest of my time in Baku, where I felt more comfortable. Although there were a couple of confrontations on the last day (I heard the 'N' word a couple of times, and I was so fed up, I was ready to fight anybody and everybody), it was miles better than Ganja.

Baku is a really beautiful city, there are a lot of things to do, and the architecture is stunning. The hostel that I stayed at (Sweet House Hostel) made my experience so much better. It was here that I was the unofficial translator (ME! HAHA), and they were so kind and helpful, and this is really the only great thing I can say about my trip to Azerbaijan.

Unfortunately, I had to go back to Ganja for my return flight, and can you believe I had the same customs officials? I went to the airport early because I was anticipating some problems, and although it didn’t take as long, they still questioned me for some time. After I went through, and was waiting for my flight, 2 more officials came up to me asked to see my documents AGAIN. ONLY ME. I’m never one to automatically assume someone is being racist, but after all of these experiences, I do believe they were just abusing their power and singling me out because I’m black. But I made it out of the country with no problems, and I think I can firmly say SEE YOU NEVER.

This is my own experience as a dark-skinned black woman travelling alone in Azerbaijan. Your experience may be the total opposite (I hope it is, and that would be great for you!), so take this with a grain of salt. The elderly people were actually very nice, I didn’t have any problems with them. It was mostly the young adults/middle aged people that I had problems with. And I repeat, I know curiosity. This was not curiosity, this was pure disrespect and ignorance.

All in all, it was a pretty disappointing and frustrating trip for me, but it’s all a part of travelling. Some places are great, some not so great, and it was definitely a different experience. If you found this article useful, comment below! I would love to hear about your experiences!