Akon is a strong believer in the future of Africa.
Back in 2020, the musician and businessman first announced that he was spearheading a $6 billion project — Akon City — as previously shared by AFROTECH. Akon City was incepted to be a safe space for Black Americans and others facing racial injustices. The futuristic pan-African city is reportedly being built in Senegal, where Akon was raised.
“If you’re coming from America or Europe or elsewhere in the diaspora and you feel that you want to visit Africa, we want Senegal to be your first stop,” Akon said at the time, per AP News.
While Akon’s project is still under construction, he is pushing a proposition to African Americans that he strongly believes they should consider. In an interview on REVOLT’s podcast “Assets Over Liabilities,” he shared his perspective on Africa being “the holy grail” for freedom and generational wealth.
In addition, he broke down his claim that the African continent is a lucrative investment.
“Africa is in a position where if African Americans take 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 told hosts Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings. “So, you guys come with the discipline, you guys come with the knowledge, you come with the resources.”
Akon went on to emphasize his perspective that it’s Black people who are the driving force behind America’s revenue today across all sectors such as sports, entertainment, fashion, and medicine.
“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.”
During the course of the interview, Akon also shared further details on the status of Akon City. He says that he and his team have faced a lot of complications in developing the city. However, they are working under an estimated 10-year plan.
“The whole idea is to create what the future of Africa should be,” he 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.”
He added, “If nothing [else] happens, the city will be done and mentally people know that it’s something possible to do in Africa.”