By: Bakary Ceesay
Senegalese-American musician and entrepreneur Akon on 31 August announced that the construction of Akon City would begin early next year.
Akon made the announcement during a tour of Mbodiene, the proposed 800-hectare site for the project, situated about 100km outside the capital Dakar. When completed, Akon hopes that the city will become home for the African diaspora and people who are experiencing racial injustice.
“The system back home treats them unfairly in so many different ways that you can never imagine,” Akon said. “And they only go through it because they feel that there is no other way. So, if you’re coming from America or Europe or elsewhere in the diaspora and you feel that you want to visit Africa, we want Senegal to be your first stop.”
Akon said the first phase of Akon City could take about three years to complete. The project will include hotels, a private airstrip, residential homes, schools and a billion-dollar hospital with 5 000 beds. The singer has acknowledged the comparisons made between Akon City and the utopian society in the Black Panther film, calling it an ‘honour’. The ‘Lonely’ hitmaker said a third of the required $6bn had been secured thus far.
The project, which was first announced in 2018, will use its own cryptocurrency, Akoin, as the medium of exchange. Earlier this year, Akon told Music In Africa that a cryptocurrency would be valuable to “digitally monetise all of our resources, our goods, our trading. And we’re going to be in a position where we can create and control our own systems, where we can live in a way where Africans can benefit from it.”
Apart from tourism potential, Akon City is also expected to create employment opportunities for young people in Senegal.
Commenting on the project, Senegalese Minister of Tourism Alioune Sarr said: “COVID-19 has sown doubt everywhere. This means that those who had doubts about the attractiveness of Senegal and Africa, in general, must convince themselves that there are men and women who believe in Africa.”
Born Aliaune Akon Thiam, Akon is also the co-founder of Akon Lighting Africa, which has provided electricity to more than 1 million African households since it was founded in 2014.