Akon wants to make “Wakanda from reality” – VG

The ambitious project has been compared to the future utopian world of Wakanda in the Marvel hit “Black Panther,” in which the recently deceased Chadwick Boseman played the title role.

– Akon City will be the beginning of the future of Africa. The idea is to build a futuristic city that contains the latest technology, cryptocurrencies and also what African societies should look like in the future, says Akon (47), who spent much of his childhood in his parents’ home country of Senegal.

The artist, whose real name is Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam, was in the capital Dakar this week, writes the Washington Post.

Here he placed the first building block in the approximately eight square kilometers of area that the Senegalese authorities have granted him to make his vision come true.

By comparison, New York’s Manhattan borough is 59 square miles in size.

On Instagram, Akon has shared illustrations of surreal sculptural buildings in metal and glass:

During a press conference in Dakar on Monday, the artist says he started working in the city before the movie “Black Panther” came out.

It first launched the plans in 2018, Guardian writes.

– But when the movie came, it was like a blessing, like God allowed this movie to be a success. For me, it is an honor to be compared to such success and to give people the belief that something like this can be possible in Africa, he says now.

Read VG’s review of “Black Panther” here: Another cat king

Own cryptocurrency

The city will be built around the town of Mbodiene along the Senegalese coast, about 100 kilometers from the capital Dakar. On Monday, Akon visited the grasslands here along with the country’s Tourism Minister Aljoner Sarr.

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According to Akon, the project has already secured about four of the six billion dollars needed, investments that are urgently needed in Senegal, according to the Minister of Tourism.

– Covid-19 has sown doubts everywhere. This means that those who have doubted the attractiveness of Senegal, and Africa in general, must convince themselves that there are men and women who believe in Africa, says Sarr.

According to Akon, the city will have its own technology center, resorts along the coast and a separate area for filming called “Senewood.” According to the artist, a new cryptocurrency called AKoin will be the payment method.

Born in the United States, Akon wants his new city to be a luxurious haven for people of African descent from around the world.

– The system at home treats them unfairly in so many ways that you cannot imagine. And they only go through it because they feel like it’s the only way, he tells Dakar Press.

The artist had great success with the R&B album “Trouble” in 2004, but in recent years he has devoted more and more of his time to various development projects in Africa, writes the Ap news agency. Among other things, he is behind the solar energy company Akon Lightning Afrika, which collaborates with the World Bank and various authorities to provide electricity to small villages.

– I hope this is a great joke

However, the Akon City project is criticized for not being local enough, writes the Washington Post. The company that will build the city, KE International, is American, while the architect Hussein Bakri lives in Abu Dhabi.

– These forms could have been anywhere: Phoenix, Dubai. Why can’t we define our own modernity? asks Senegalese architect Nzinga Mboup.

Another local architect, Mamy Tall, tells the newspaper that the design does not appear to be adapted to the warm climate of Senegal.

– In the photographs you publish, nothing related to Senegal, our climate, our materials or our needs has been taken into account. I really hope this is a great joke, he says.