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(NEWSER) – Rapper Akon is of Senegalese descent and spent much of his childhood in the West African country, and now he owns a city there. "Just finalized the agreement for AKON CITY in Senegal. Looking forward to hosting you there in the future," he posted last week on Twitter. Yes, that's right, he named the city after himself. As the Independent reports, its official name is actually Akon Crypto City, and its economy is based on Akon's cryptocurrency, AKoin. The Missouri-born rapper is also an entrepreneur, and this is not his first high-tech venture in Africa; he also co-founded a lighting nonprofit that says it has brought solar power to 18 African countries.
Akon has described the city as a "real-life Wakanda," referring to the fictional country ruled over by King T’Challa in Marvel's Black Panther, promising it will be "futuristic." Residents will be able to use their smartphones to buy, hold, and spend AKoin. "It brings the power back to the people and brings the security back into the currency system," Akon explained in 2018, per the BBC. "It also allows the people to utilize it in ways where they can advance themselves and not allow government to do those things that are keeping them down." Akon built his namesake city on 2,000 acres near the capital city of Dakar that Senegal's president gave him.
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