Akon Breaks Ground On $6 Billion Smart City In Senegal

September 10, 2020 September 10, 2020

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Akon announced this week that his company has begun breaking ground on Akon City in his home country of Senegal. Located in Senegal’s Cadastral de Mbodiene park, the solar-powered smart city is slated to become a real-life version of Marvel’s fictional metropolis Wakanda, the setting for Black Panther. Trade in the new city will trade exclusively with a new cryptocurrency called Akoin. Akon City will be established five minutes away from Senegal’s new international airport and will feature healthcare facilities, offices, luxury houses, shopping malls, skyscrapers, and eco-friendly tourist centers.

According to the proposed futuristic city’s official website:

“The developed economy aims to adapt future development. The current evolution required a flexible infrastructure to accommodate new real estate development. The fast pace of global changes, economic progress, Poverty, and technology race, continuously causing Senegal to face various new challenges.

AKONCITY will play a vital role in the quest for solutions to these challenges. The knowledge we generate and the professionals we train are expected, and quite rightly, to help in providing local solutions as well as a critical component of human development.”

Akon received 2,000 acres of land as a gift from Senegalese President Macky Sall for this ambitious project. The singer says that he has raised part of the required $6 billion from unnamed investors. Judging from his Akon Lighting Africa initiative to bring solar-powered electricity to 600 million Africans, it stands to reason that some of those unnamed investors would include backers from China. The Chinese have shown great interest in developing in Africa over the years, which some deem an imperialistic move.
Akon also aims to make Akon City a city of refuge for members of the Pan-African diaspora who may feel oppressed in their home countries, especially Black Americans. “I wanted to build a city or a project like this that would give [African Americans] the motivation to know that there is a home back home.” he said.

Construction on Akon City is slated to begin next year.

Ryan K. Smith

Ryan K. Smith is digital content editor for Don Diva Magazine. Earning a bachelors degree from Penn State University (by way of Howard University), Ryan has pursued a career in journalism, published by Complex Magazine, Ebony Magazine, Philadelphia Weekly and The Chester Spirit Newspaper. He is also a self-published author. He sells the most awesome tee shirts on Earth at meweforus.spreadshirt.com.