Rapper’s Scheme To Create A Real Life Wakanda In Africa Ends In Failure

There have been numerous ‘back to Africa’ movements over the years, usually promoted by leftist activists.  Often these movements are driven by fantasies within the black American community of exporting the best of US life, economy, technology and infrastructure into Africa and far away from the “oppression” of white people. 

Of course, it’s white people that created the majority of the marvels that define western civilization; the rest of the world simply seeks to imitate this model, often with limited success. 

Back to Africa travelers most often come to this shocking realization after encountering a multitude of struggles when trying to assimilate into African societies.  The limitations and lack of easily available resourced in Africa are stark.  There is no monolithic culture with unified ideals in African nations, they are deeply tribal and view black Americans as distinctly separate and alien despite sharing similar skin color.

Instead of accepting this reality and moving on, activists have proposed new projects that seek to build a kind of isolated bubble of wealth within an African enclave – They are so desperate for Wakanda to be real that they are hoping to conjure it into being.

Rap artist Akon, real name Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam, launched such an endeavor seven years ago with the intent to “free black Americans” from the racism of the west and bring the Marvel movie Utopia to life. 

The $6 billion construction effort, called Akon City, was started with the support of the government of Senegal in 2018 and was also supposed to adopt a new cryptocurrency called “Akoin” (the imagination of modern artists is truly staggering).  Sitting on Senegal’s Atlantic Coast, Akon’s high-tech, eco-friendly city was supposed to run entirely on renewable energy.

Of course, rappers are known for their opportunism, not their grand vision or leadership.  Both Akon City and the Akoin project have met with failure, with Akon city being scrapped by Senegal and the cryptocurrency facing investment setbacks and accusations of mismanagement.

Akon and the Senegalese Coastal Development and Promotion Company (SAPCO) have reached an “amicable agreement” to end the venture, the general manager of SAPCO, Serigne Mamadou Mboup, told a Senegalese news agency.  According to a Bloomberg report, SAPCO terminated the Akon City project after Akon failed to comply with a final demand to begin construction.

The ultimatum, which was reportedly issued by SAPCO in 2024, came after a prolonged period of inactivity and project delays that had led to public criticism and doubts about its feasibility.  After five years of setbacks, the 800-hectare site in Mbodiène – about 100km (60 miles) south of the capital, Dakar – remains mostly empty. The only structure is an incomplete reception building. There are no roads, no housing, no power grid. 

“We were promised jobs and development,” one local resident told the BBC. “Instead, nothing has changed.”  

“The Akon City project no longer exists,” Serigne Mamadou Mboup, the head of Senegal’s tourism development body, Sapco, told the BBC.

The Wakanda delusion contains elements of communist futurism very similar to the sci-fi propaganda of the early Soviet Union.  Promise people a life of technological ease and the prestige of scientific superiority; appeal to their childlike wonder and they will embrace you with open arms.  The idea also caters to the race obsessions of leftists who are clamoring to prove that, sans white people, the world would be some kind of comic book paradise.    

The problem is that reality always sets a tangible foot down somewhere and ruins the dream.

There are vast swaths of the African continent that still don’t have fresh running water, basic sanitation, medical care or electricity, and there’s no white people around to blame.  Building a civilization is much harder than burning one to the ground.  It takes generations of trial and error, not to mention strong leadership and impressive ingenuity.  Basing the hopes of a new society on the impulses of a rapper with delusions of persecution should have been a red flag for everyone involved.