10 Design Architecture An architect’s drawing of Akon City.10 Design Architecture
Some people compared the designs to the amazing fictional city of Wakanda.
Plans for a futuristic city in Senegal, created by the singer Akon, have been canceled, and now he will focus on a more practical project, officials say.
“The Akon City project is no longer happening,” said Serigne Mamadou Mboup, who leads Senegal’s tourism development organization, Sapco, in an interview with the BBC.
“Luckily, we have come to an agreement with the entrepreneur Alioune Badara Thiam, also known as Akon. What he is planning with us is a realistic project that Sapco will fully support.”
Akon, famous for his hit songs from the 2000s, was born in the US but spent part of his childhood in Senegal. He announced two big projects in 2018 that were meant to symbolize the future of African society.
The first was Akon City, which was estimated to cost $6 billion (£5 billion). It was supposed to be powered by a new cryptocurrency called Akoin.
The initial designs for Akon City, featuring its uniquely shaped skyscrapers, were likened by commentators to the incredible fictional city of Wakanda from Marvel’s Black Panther movies and comics.
However, after five years of delays, the 800-hectare area in Mbodiène, located about 100 km (60 miles) south of the capital, Dakar, is still mostly vacant. The only building there is an unfinished reception center. There are no roads, no homes, and no power grid.
“We were promised jobs and development,” a local resident told the BBC. “But instead, nothing has changed.”
At the same time, Akon’s Akoin cryptocurrency has had a hard time paying back its investors over the years, with Akon admitting, “It wasn’t managed well – I take full responsibility for that.”
There were also concerns about whether it would even be legal for Akoin to be the main payment method for future residents of Akon City.
