Akon once dreamed of building a real-life Wakanda on the Atlantic coast of Senegal. In 2020, the Grammy-nominated singer and entrepreneur unveiled plans for a $6 billion futuristic city that would merge African innovation, renewable energy, and cryptocurrency.
Named Akon City, the project was supposed to be a utopia rising from rural farmland, complete with twisting skyscrapers, seaside resorts, a hospital, a university, and even a solar-powered grid running entirely on Akoin, the digital currency Akon had launched that same year. That lofty dream has now been abandoned, according to a report by the BBC.
The Senegalese government welcomed the idea with open arms, granting Akon 136 acres near the village of Mbodiène, about 60 miles south of Dakar. Renderings of the city were compared to Marvel’s Wakanda, and Akon’s vision captured headlines around the world.
He promised a transformative impact on local communities through job creation, education, and sustainable growth. By 2023, the first phase was supposed to be complete, bringing visitors into a new kind of African city that symbolized independence from Western systems.
Today, that dream lies in ruins. On the ground, there is no futuristic skyline, no solar plants, no hospital. What stands instead is a single arched concrete structure surrounded by open fields, where goats and cows now graze. The high-tech city never materialized. Residents of Mbodiène, who were promised opportunity and development, say they have seen nothing change. Many had given up their land for the project years ago, and have yet to be reimbursed.
The cryptocurrency meant to fuel the city’s economy has also collapsed. Akoin, launched during the height of the crypto boom, has virtually disappeared. Its price fell from $0.15 in 2020 to just $0.003 by the end of 2021 and has seen no significant trading since. Legal challenges also loomed from the start. Senegal’s economy runs on the CFA franc, which is regulated by the Central Bank of West African States, a body not friendly to the idea of crypto replacing official currency.
Facing years of delays, missed payments, and broken promises, the Senegalese government has now confirmed what many had long suspected: the project is dead. Serigne Mamadou Mboup, head of Senegal’s tourism agency Sapco, stated plainly to the BBC, “The Akon City project no longer exists.”
The land in Mbodiène, once promised as the foundation for Africa’s most ambitious smart city, remains mostly empty. The government now says it is working with Akon on a more “realistic” project for the same site, but for many in the community and beyond, the original dream of Akon City has quietly collapsed into a symbol of overreach and disappointment.
