Via The Africa Report, first part of a detailed look at Senegal’s Akon City which many consider an impossible dream and potential pyramid scheme:

In August 2020, Senegalese-American singer Akon laid the foundation stone for a smart city located over 100km south of Dakar, but work has yet to begin. Delays threaten to stop this pharaonic project that local politicians suspect is a hoax.

His fame preceded him, opening the doors to the holiest of all holies. Alioune Badara Thiam (aka Akon), a Senegalese native son who became a music star on the other side of the Atlantic, saw the red carpet rolled out before him – from the ministry of tourism to the Senegalese presidency – when he unveiled the ambitious project he had for his parents’ home country in 2018.

A futuristic high-tech city with atypical architecture, propelled by solar energy and the crypto-currency the musician himself had launched, Akon City seemed destined to become a real-life Wakanda, situated over 100km from Dakar.

Like Pharaoh Cheops, Akon would be the builder. Like T’Challa (aka the Black Panther), he would become the prince of this kingdom bearing his name, a dominion meant to celebrate the continent and establish its influence throughout the world, where uprooted Africans from the diaspora would flock.

Facing the Atlantic Ocean and straddling the Mbodiène lagoon, in 2023 Akon City still exists only in the magical computer graphics of a 3D video. According to its promoter, it will cost an estimated $6bn. Initially planned for 2023, the first stage of construction work is now scheduled for completion in 2028, while the final stage will have to wait until 2035.

However, on this corner of savannah where the ground has yet to be broken, only the occasional donkey, goat, or cow can be found grazing. It’s a place no visitor can imagine is soon supposed to host the vast construction site of a cutting-edge megalopolis that would not be out of place in the United Arab Emirates.

Entrepreneur-philanthropist
Akon, who has become world famous thanks to his music, has been playing the role of entrepreneur-philanthropist for the past decade: electrifying tens of thousands of villages with solar energy, promoting his crypto-currency in Africa and now building new cities.

After laying the groundwork for Senegal’s Akon City, he has reached an agreement with Ugandan authorities to build a similar city on the shores of Lake Victoria. Will Akon’s dream, which he himself describes as childish, ever become reality?

READ MORE DJ, keep that record playing to the top Afrobeats hits of 2022!

Bombarded with proposals from hotel groups who have already proven themselves in Senegal and would like to reclaim the land leased to Akon for their own projects, some Senegalese authorities now seem to doubt the feasibility of the megalopolis.

In veiled terms, they have suggested that in the near future, the artist-philanthropist’s Wakanda may well suffer the fate of Cinderella’s carriage, which turned back into a pumpkin at the stroke of midnight.