senegal
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Akon Scooped Up Land in Senegal For a $6 Billion Wakanda-Like City, But the Country is Calling Him Out For Shenanigans
Four years after announcing his plans for a Wakanda-inspired city, the "Locked Up" singer is being told to get to work or risk losing the land
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Akon Says His Senegalese Smart-City Will Be a Safe Haven for African Americans. Some Locals Wonder If There’s Room for Them, Too
Akon is plowing ahead with his plans to build the Pan-African, high-tech “Akon City” in Senegal, announcing at a press conference Monday that he had laid down the first stone in the coastal village of Mbodiene. The singer appeared in the capital city of Dakar, some 62 miles away from his proposed city, next to…
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East Coast, West Coast, Worldwide: Akon’s Business Ventures Are Legend, but His New Music Enterprise Is One of His Most Boundary Breaking Yet
The instant Akon joined me at The Root’s office in a skyscraper overlooking Times Square, he seemed at ease. With his publicist in tow, he strolled in, falling headfirst into a conversation we were having about the huge buzz around upcoming events in Accra, Ghana in December (AfroNation and Afrochella); a pilgrimage so massive, hotels…
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BNYFW: Xuly Bët Remains Mali’s Best-Kept Fashion Secret
Fashion designer Lamine Kouyaté has always drawn from his birthplace of Mali and all of Africa’s past to create designs for his label, Xuly Bët, that put him well ahead of the fashion pack. I first met Lamine Badian Kouyaté around 1990, when I walked his Paris runway shows. Staged at La Sarmarataine, one of…
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The Glow Up Gaze: Seynabou Cissé Is the Real-Talking ‘Real Woman’ We’ve Been Waiting For
Model Seynabou Cissé—Seyna, for short—quietly rocked our worlds when she visited our offices in her signature unapologetic, pared-down, woman-conquers-menswear style. We fell in love at first sight with the 23-year old Senegalese JAG Model and her tailored separates, naturally chic cadence and glowing—SO GLOWING—skin. But mostly, we fell for her straight-talking style—is there anything more…