Akon is at ease mingling with fellow musicians or world leaders. After wowing fans in sold out concerts in China, the 43-year-old rapper travelled to Marrakech to take part in COP22, the United Nations Climate Change conference which is running until November 18. The Senegalese artist attended the high profile affair to discuss his work with the organisation Akon Lighting Africa. We caught up with the Akon in a village on the outskirts of the Moroccan city, where he paired up with the Solar Impulse pilot Bertrand Piccard to teach kids how to build solar lights.
What brought you to the conference here in Marrakech?
I’m here for the COP22 pretty much to see and hear what the discussions are, see the engagement that the officials are putting forth linked to climate change so on and so forth. But also to continue staying active in the work I’m doing with renewable energy in rural areas throughout Africa. I kind of want to get more engaged, more educated and figure out how to move forward in a more effective way.
Your career found you easily moving from the entertainment field, to business and politics? Are there different Akons when they are in each field? Or do you approach them all in the same way and attitude?
Actually it’s the same Akon , I just use music as the bridge to fulfill my dreams and passions, you know, and excitements at the end of the day.
You have worked hard on you Akon Lighting Africa projects. How fulfilling has that role been? Is it more rewarding than show business?
It’s more fulfilling to me than music honestly. Yeah, I mean, you think you’re changing people’s lives through music but when you do this kind of work, you can really see the impact. Of course through music, you’re rewarded through awards. But that doesn’t really mean anything, it’s all just propaganda towards the corporate agenda to make more money and tours utilising my likeness. Whereas this, you can actually see the benefits and impacts it has in people’s lives. It’s a way bigger reward for me.
Can you tell us a bit about your film project American King? The only thing we know about is what you put on your Instagram? Is it a film, short film - can you explain?
So American King is a hilarious story, the best way to describe it it's almost the like Coming to America, but the flipside, coming back to Africa. The whole concept is spilled around this King who passed away, but he had a son that the villagers who didn't know nothing about. But he was shipped to the US early because there was a civil war happening back in his town. So when the king passed away there was no one to take heir to the throne. The oracle at this point, is searching for who can be the next king. So there's a tradition in Africa, if you don't know who the next king is, the oracle picks the king. To pick the king, he takes a feather, puts it on the top of the village male's head and if the wind blows the feather off then clearly he's not the king. If it stays, then he is the king. They go through the whole village, looking for the next king but the feather falls off all of them. The last male, the oracle puts the feather on his head the wind blows and poof, the feather falls off.
So everyone is confused like “who is our king, the oracle never lies.” So he replies, well the king is in the land of the free, home of the brave. But he’s a complete American and knows nothing about Africa. He needs to come back to Africa to learn about the culture and run the village. It’s a parallel comedy between African Americans and Africa.
You recently appeared in the new Gucci Mann single Moon Walk - can you tell us a bit about that track and how it came together?
When Gucci first got out of jail, the first thing he did was come to my studio. Me and Gucci, we go way back, he's a great friend of mine. We were doing a lot of work before he had to go in and clearly when you get locked up - if you haven't been locked up before - it's this thing like time comes to a standstill. When you walk in, you come out with the same state of mine, as if nothing ever happened. Time has passed you by, but you're in a completely warped time zone. I think the same thing happened to him. As soon as he came out of jail, he went straight back to the studio, literally as if it was paused then we continued working. We worked on some great records and Moon Walk was one of them.
What’s the status on the album Stadium? Are you still planning to release it this year as a four CD set?
It’s funny you ask because you’ll probably be the first to get it. It’s still four bodies of work, that’s going to be presented on an app. It’s releasing before the end of the year, we’re trying to get it out before Christmas. Within the next week or two weeks I’ll be out there promoting the app.
We have been seeing you a lot in the UAE in club show mode? Can we expect a full Akon concert show soon in the UAE?
That’s coming very soon. There’s a private concert that I’ll be performing at in COP22 and it won’t be open to the public much. But we are working on a UAE tour, also Qatar and throughout Asia.
For more details on Cop22 go to www.cop22.ma
nalwasmi@thenational.ae
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
The bio
Academics: Phd in strategic management in University of Wales
Number one caps: His best-seller caps are in shades of grey, blue, black and yellow
Reading: Is immersed in books on colours to understand more about the usage of different shades
Sport: Started playing polo two years ago. Helps him relax, plus he enjoys the speed and focus
Cars: Loves exotic cars and currently drives a Bentley Bentayga
Holiday: Favourite travel destinations are London and St Tropez
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
The specs: 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor
Price, base / as tested Dh220,000 / Dh320,000
Engine 3.5L V6
Transmission 10-speed automatic
Power 421hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 678Nm @ 3,750rpm
Fuel economy, combined 14.1L / 100km
Price, base / as tested From Dh173,775 (base model)
Engine 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo, AWD
Power 249hp at 5,500rpm
Torque 365Nm at 1,300-4,500rpm
Gearbox Nine-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined 7.9L/100km
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
The Birkin bag is made by Hermès.
It is named after actress and singer Jane Birkin
Noone from Hermès will go on record to say how much a new Birkin costs, how long one would have to wait to get one, and how many bags are actually made each year.
SPECS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%201.5-litre%204-cylinder%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20101hp%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20135Nm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20Six-speed%20auto%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20From%20Dh79%2C900%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
Profile
Company name: Jaib
Started: January 2018
Co-founders: Fouad Jeryes and Sinan Taifour
Based: Jordan
Sector: FinTech
Total transactions: over $800,000 since January, 2018
Investors in Jaib's mother company Alpha Apps: Aramex and 500 Startups
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The Kingfisher Secret
Anonymous, Penguin Books
The Scale for Clinical Actionability of Molecular Targets
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8
Transmission: seven-speed automatic
Power: 592bhp
Torque: 620Nm
Price: Dh980,000
On sale: now
The%20Mother%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Niki%20Caro%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Jennifer%20Lopez%2C%20Joseph%20Fiennes%2C%20Gael%20Garcia%20Bernal%2C%20Omari%20Hardwick%20and%20Lucy%20Paez%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
