Remember Akon City?

Announced by R&B singer Akon in 2018, it was meant to be an innovative, awe-inspiring African city built on the Senegalese coast.

It was initially compared in the press with Wakanda, the futuristic African metropolis featured in the Black Panther movies and comic books.

Riddled by delays, the first phase of construction for Akon City was supposed to be completed by the end of 2023.

At this stage it was meant to contain roads, a campus, a mall, residences, hotels, a police station, a school, a waste facility and a solar power plant.

“I wanted to build a city or a project like this that will give them the motivation to know that there is a home back home,” the singer said at a press conference in 2020.

Journalist @ainajkhan is the first international journalist to step foot in the city’s first building, the Welcome Center.

Here she looks at the progress so far - and to read her full piece, including interviews with local residents, tap the link in bio.

#Akon #AkonCity #Senegal #Wakanda