Lately, the rich have become obsessed with building new cities—a pain that even extends to hip-hop and R&B singer Akon. As early as 2020, Akon announced that he would build a futuristic new city in his “hometown” Senegal. “Akoin City” will be powered by green energy and solar energy, feature apartments, a seaside resort and a university, and will use his cryptocurrency Akoin as its main source of transactions. Akon promised that soon, the African country would have “a city of the future,” a “real-life Wakanda” that could serve as a model for “how African societies should develop in the future.”
Well, fast forward to 2024, and it seems there are almost no jobs available to make this dream a reality. The Senegalese government gave Akon large tracts of land to build his would-be new metropolis, but has now lost patience. Sapco-Senegal, the government entity responsible for the country’s tourism and development, has “formally notified Akon” to begin work on the project, Bloomberg reported. If he doesn’t make any progress soon, the government will take back much of the land previously granted to him. The government issued a notice to the singer after Sapco repeatedly failed to pay dues.
Gizmodo reached out to Akon for comment and will update this story if he responds.
Akon has previously widely publicized the project but has been less vocal recently. Akoncity.com, once dedicated to providing details about the singer’s development plans, now simply redirects to Akon’s personal website.
#akoncity pic.twitter.com/IYbIjsd7HY
– my mine) August 26, 2020
Akon is not the only wealthy man who is bad at building cities. In the Bay Area, many tech billionaires have been trying to pitch their urban projects on thousands of acres of cattle farmland, but have recently suffered dismal failures. Then there’s Neom, the Saudi Arabian government’s project to build a 105-mile-long city along the Red Sea coast. This too is wavering. Despite a series of ongoing promises to the media and investors, the Saudi Arabian government has recently had to scale back its ambitions. Other billionaire-backed urban projects are scattered across the United States, and even Kanye West is planning his own “Yecosystem.” Despite billions of dollars spent and much discussion, none of these projects have come to fruition, proving that the urban planning expertise of the 1% may be vastly overstated.
