Turns out Akon’s real-life Wakanda wasn’t meant to last forever.
Senegal just ditched its plans for the singer’s multibillion-dollar smart city in the country, reminiscent of Marvel’s fictitious nation in its Black Panther franchise. Instead, Akon City’s allotted space on the nation’s Atlantic Coast will be used as a tourist hub, complete with hotels, a promenade, and other offerings, Bloomberg reported.
For the unversed, the Senegalese American R&B star got the ball rolling on his eponymous city, estimated to cost $6 billion, back in 2020, when Senegal permitted Akon to build near a farming village called Mbodiène. At the time, the solar-powered metropolis was expected to eventually house a large luxury resort, a university, a hospital, and a stadium—and its citizens would use Akoin, a cryptocurrency founded by—you guess it—Akon. The singer had a few goals for his city: help stimulate the local economy of Senegal, create jobs for its people, serve as a “home back home” for Black Americans and other people facing racial injustices, he told AP when the idea began coming off the ground.
Now, though, Akon’s project has failed. The government has reclaimed much of the land meant to house Akon City in the wake of the singer’s failure to pay Sapco, a state-owned company that brings tourism spots to life, according to Bloomberg. In a 10-year timeline, phase one of Akon City was set to wrap in 2023; currently, a youth center, a basketball court, and an information center, are present, according to the publication.
Sapco firm now plans to transform the land into a hospitality giant—complete with hotels, apartments, a marina, and more—to the tune of $1.2 billion. Akon, known for his singles “Lonely” and “I Wanna Love You,” still lays claim to about 20 acres of land, which will remain part of the firm’s ambitions for the area.
“What Akon’s preparing with us is a realistic project, which Sapco will fully support,” Serigne Mamadou Mboup, head of Sapco-Senegal, told L’Agence de presse sénégalaise, a news agency.
A member of Akon’s team declined to respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment. Sapco did not immediately respond to Robb Report‘s request for comment.
Akon isn’t the only one with dreams of building his own city. Elon Musk has created Starbase, his own Tesla town where employees of SpaceX can live and work in Texas. The residents voted to make the city official this past May, according to The New York Times.
