طنجة, طنجة – تطوان – الحسيمة

Putting an important “Traveling While Black” review here for Tangier, Morocco, although it has been 20+ years since my first and only visit, and I can’t add a photo to the post because the quality would be extremely poor. (This was still during my film-in-a camera days.)

I went to Morocco (after visiting Gibraltar) during one of my visits to Spain. I went to Tangier on a tour. It was several hours of, first, being driven from Marbella to a port and then on to a high-speed ferry for Tangier. I was the only Black person on the tour. As a matter of fact, I was the only non-white person.

Landing on the African continent was surreal. It was a dream come true. The greeting was not.

The men were openly pushy, wayyyy too close, and aggressive. Hindsight is an interesting thing because I’ve had a chance to look back. I am unsure if my presence as a young(er) Black woman was negative or, in a strange way, positive, i.e. as a foreigner, a Black woman who was clearly not Moroccan and not from any other African nation. I was, in their eyes, “American,” which I am not.

I attracted A LOT OF ATTENTION, which was embarrassing while being with a group of about 16, mostly middle-aged, white people.

Tangier was chaotic, bustling, and very crowded. I have vivid memories of walking around the souk and having one of the tour chaperones acting as a bodyguard. It was so bad that I stayed on the bus when a planned stop was made to ride camels.

Today, with many countries being exposed to tourists from other nations, it may not be so jarring. I’d love to go back to take advantage of soaking in the culture without extreme discomfort.