Akon Still Believes In Akon City

Akon still believes in the prospects of African investment, as he laid out in an interview on the Revolt podcast, Assets Over Liabilities. According to Yahoo, Akon implored Black people to pool resources in Africa: “I mean, you name it. We’re leading in every single sector,” he said.

“Just imagine if we all just decided to just take all our bags, withdrew all our money, and go to Africa. Where would America be today? It would collapse overnight.”

Akon is still in the process of developing Akon City, his promised futuristic city, in Senegal. Akon says that even though he and his team have encountered setbacks, they are working under a 10-year plan.

“The whole idea is to create what the future of Africa should be,” Akon said.

“We have all the resources, we have the manpower, we definitely have the population. So it was just a matter of putting something in a country that can start and pretty much scale out to every other country — that we can copy and paste or at least the idea.”

Akon has been publicly pushing his idea for Akon City since 2020. At the time, Akon positioned it as an alternative to living in America, inspired by the blockbuster Marvel film Black Panther and its depiction of a futuristic African country, Wakanda.

Akon told The Associated Press in 2020, “The system back home (in America) treats them unfairly in so many different ways that you can never imagine. And they only go through it because they feel there is no other way.”

Akon said that once construction began in early 2021, it could take more than three years to complete phase one of the project. He discussed what he believes is needed on the podcast.

“Africa is in a position where if African Americans take [a] position now, every single African American would be a millionaire without even thinking twice because there’s nothing that’s not needed over there,” Akon said.

“So, you guys come with the discipline, you guys come with the knowledge, you come with the resources.”