Akon City: What are the singer’s plans to build his own city, with his cryptocurrency

[ad_1]

Senegalese-American singer Akon said in a BBC interview on Saturday that despite many disruptions, the ambitious construction project for his town, Akon City, Senegal is moving forward.

The statement came more than four years after the singer first revealed his plans to create a futuristic pan-African smart city to be developed in the mold of Wakanda, a fictional technologically advanced location in Africa depicted in films and the Black Panther comics.

However, little progress has been made since the 2018 announcement and the site where the metropolis is supposed to be built remains a wasteland, according to the BBC report. In the interview, the singer blamed the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic for the delay and said: We are trying to get the city built as quickly as possible.

The Aikon City project

Located 100 kilometers from the Senegalese capital, Dakar, Akon City will be built on 2,000 acres of land, gifted to the singer by the country’s government, said a CNN report published in 2020. He also mentioned that the project will cost around $6 billion and Akon had managed to raise a third of the required amount.

According to the city’s official website, the metropolis will be divided into seven different districts and will include health facilities, offices, luxury homes, shopping malls, skyscrapers and eco-friendly tourist centers. The website also features sketches of surreal, curvaceous skyscrapers that are said to be inspired by the forms of traditional sculptures that have long been made in African villages. The town of Akon will run entirely on renewable energy and will have native trees, flowers and man-made forests throughout the area.

Another important facet of the metropolis will be to provide much-needed jobs to Senegalese. The city will train individuals to develop the capabilities and analytical skills that drive local economies, create new industries, support civil society, lead competent governments and make critical decisions that will affect the entire economy, the city said. website.

According to a 2020 report in The Guardian, Akon hoped the city would also serve as a home for African Americans and other oppressed communities around the world.

The home system [in the US] treats them unfairly in so many different ways that you can never imagine, he said. And they only go through it because they feel there is no other way. If you are from America or Europe or elsewhere in the Diaspora and you feel you want to visit Africa, we want Senegal to be your first stop.

The Akon City project also involves residents exclusively using Akoin, an app-based cryptocurrency, for all kinds of financial transactions. Although several years have passed since this announcement, there is no clarity on the legality of using Akoin and how exactly it will boost the economy of the proposed metropolis.

In 2021, Akon officially launched its cryptocurrency but with the collapse of the entire cryptocurrency market, Akoin’s value has plummeted and its future remains uncertain.

Other offers to build utopian cities

Akon is not the first public figure to float the idea of ​​developing his city. In 1981 Indian spiritual master Rajneesh better known as Osho established his city called Rajneeshpuram which is located in Oregon, USA. The city spanned an area of ​​64,229 acres and was home to Oshos followers from all over the world. However, it soon ran into trouble after its citizens and leaders were revealed to be involved in a bioterrorist attack, murder plots, political intimidation, and other criminal activities. Eventually everyone left Rajneeshpuram and it was sold to an insurance company in 1988.

In 2019, Indian fugitive man-god Nithyananda announced that he had created a new island nation, called Kailaasa, near Trinidad and Tobago from Ecuador. He also claimed to offer a passport and citizenship.

According to its website, Kailaasa is a nation without borders created by dispossessed Hindus around the world who have lost the right to practice Hinduism authentically in their own country. Kailaasa was established with the determination not only to preserve and protect the Sanatana Hindu Dharma and share it with the world, but also to share the history of persecution which is still unknown to the world. To this end, Kailaasa is dedicated to the preservation, restoration and revival of an enlightened culture and civilization based on authentic Hinduism.

Another example of the development of a utopian zone is Auroville. Founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa known as The Mother, it is a township located in Viluppuram district, Tamil Nadu as well as parts of Pondicherry. In his first public message regarding Auroville in 1965, Alfassa stated that Auroville wants to be a universal city where men and women of all countries can live in peace and progressive harmony, above all beliefs, of all policies and all nationalities. The goal of Auroville is to achieve human unity.

[ad_2]