Free Republic

Senegal has pulled the plug on Akon City, reclaiming almost all of the 55-hectare seaside concession after seven years of missed deadlines, fading crypto fortunes and a single half-finished welcome centre that now shares its lot with grazing goats. The $6 billion “real-life Wakanda” once promised luxury towers and flying-car parking is now the most expensive visitor kiosk on the continent. Ambitious Beginnings Announced with Marvel-level fanfare in 2018, Akon called it a “real-life Wakanda” inspired by Black Panther -the plan promised soaring hotels, a 5,000-bed hospital and streets that ran on renewable energy and Akoin. The project aimed to...

Rapper Akon has revealed plans for a futuristic $6 billion city in his Senegal homeland modelled on Black Panther's Wakanda. The R&B star, who boasts two multi-platinum albums, told a news conference on Monday he had laid the first stone for the city in the Atlantic Ocean village of Mbodiene, around 60 miles south of the capital Dakar. The solar-powered Akon City will offer hotels, a university, hospitals, business and leisure centres including a casino, as well as movie studios, all featuring futuristic designs by architect Hussein Bakri, with African sculptures for inspiration.