Curvy architecture, cutting-edge materials, film studios, hotels, university, hospitals, business and leisure centers ... rapper Akon detailed Monday in Dakar his project for
"Akon City",
a worthy futuristic city of the mythical Wakanda that he intends to build in Senegal, his country of origin.
Known for his R&B hits
"Locked Up"
or
"Smack That"
, the 47-year-old American-Senegalese singer and producer explained at a press conference that he had laid the foundation stone for his gigantic project, at an estimated cost of 6 billion dollars, in the small village of Mbodiène, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, about a hundred kilometers south of Dakar.
Read also: Singer Akon will create his own sustainable city in Senegal
The future city intends to make Senegal the gateway to Africa, said the singer in front of many Senegalese and international journalists.
“One of my biggest motivations is that when I'm in America, I meet a lot of African Americans who don't really understand their culture.
So I wanted to build a city or a project like this to give them the motivation to come and see where they come from, ”
Akon said.
Born in the United States of Senegalese parents, and having spent part of his childhood in Senegal, he returned at the age of seven to his native country, where he rose to prominence.
Bizarre shapes
An animated film shown presented the future "districts" of Akon City, designed by architect Hussein Bakri: one, dedicated to leisure, should host a casino, a multi-sports stadium and a shopping center, a another housing and office buildings, a third a
“village of African cultures”,
restaurants and tourist chalets.
Further on, a general hospital, a police station, a campus and film studios, as well as a
"technological pole"
, should rise from the ground.
"I said: Hussein, I want my buildings to look like sculptures"
, explained the rapper, who alternated Wolof, the local language most spoken in Senegal, and English.
“I want the architecture to look like the real African sculptures they make in the villages. The shapes may be weird, but at least they're African, ”
he added.
Asked about the similarities between his project and Wakanda, an imaginary kingdom located in Africa where the film and the comic strip
"Black Panther" take place
, he explained that this comparison had increased his motivation tenfold.
Akon City's work will begin
"in the first quarter of 2021,"
said rapper Alioune Badara Thiam whose real name is.
300,000 inhabitants
The first phase of development, expected to be completed in 2023, will cover 55 hectares.
At the end of the decade, the complex is expected to cover 500 hectares, with an
agricultural
"district"
and artificial islands, with a marina that can accommodate cruise ships.
"We believe that 300,000 people will eventually live in the city,"
architect Hussein Bakri told AFP on the sidelines of the press conference.
Akon, very involved in renewable energy with his company Akon Lighting Africa, whose objective is to electrify Africa with solar energy, insisted on the ecological aspect of the future city, which will make maximum use of renewable materials and primarily of African origin.
He explained that he went to Mbodiène to collect the advice and blessings of the elders, and estimated that the local populations, as well as the Senegalese youth, will benefit from this new development pole.
The Senegalese Minister of Tourism, Alioune Sarr, said he wanted to prove wrong
"Cassandra and bad omen who always see new projects as chimeras"
, affirming that Senegal had made a commitment that
"this project will be carried out in indicated deadlines ”.
Akon is not the only celebrity to go back to basics for such an investment.
British actor and director Idris Elba plans to build an eco-responsible tourist resort on an island in Sierra Leone, a West African country where his father was from.