Few months ago, the British media enthusiastically reported that “Idris Elba has shared details of his dream to turn an island off the coast of Sierra Leone, the country where his father was born, into an environmentally friendly smart city.”

The Guardian took the lead in the enthusiasm that surrounded the story. The newspaper specifically reported that “the actor [Idris Elba] is working with his childhood friend to develop Sherbro, which is roughly the size of the Isle of Man, after the island was given enough autonomy by the West African nation’s government to allow the work to go ahead.”

Idris Elba’s friend is Siaka Stevens (of course Stevens last name is a familiar one in Sierra Leone). In its reporting, the Guardian said Elba and Stevens both grew up together in east London, and they have decided to embark on the ambitious project of turning Sherbro into an eco-city. The newspaper revealed that Elba and Stevens had set-up a joint company called Sherbro Alliance Partners (SAP), and they had “reached agreements with the Sierra Leonean government, as well as several major firms, to build an eco-city as a public-private partnership.”

This is not the end of the story.

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The Guardian further added that Idris Elba and Siaka Stevens have even “agreed on a deal with the energy company, Octopus, to build Sierra Leone’s first wind farm on the island, which lacks main electricity and is a two-hour ferry trip from the mainland.”

This was exciting news in Sierra Leone. News of these kinds of development projects have often been greeted with enthusiasm in the country.

Many Sierra Leoneans, both home and abroad, applauded Elba’s “dream city project.” Of course, the country badly needs real economic and social development, more so development projects and initiatives that are driven by citizens of the country.

However, Elba’s ideas are not new in West Africa; other African entertainers with new smart and eco-city dreams have been on the news lately.

Not very long ago, US-Senegalese singer Akon had also announced his own plans “to build a futuristic city in his ancestral homeland.” The first phase of Akon’s project was supposed to have been completed since 2023. The Guardian, which featured Elba’s dream project, had similarly reported in December 2023 that Akon’s city project faced “delays and controversy” and instead of the promised futuristic city, “only a youth centre and the shell of what is planned to be the welcome centre had been built.”

The Guardian added that “while Akon received praise for the planned city’s Afrofuturistic aesthetics,” skeptics are now asking whether Akon’s proposed city “will ever come to pass.” Disappointment is slowly becoming a dream city’s outcome, the newspaper said.

In the case of the proposed Sherbro city, the Guardian said Elba is unlike Akon: ” he has. been clear about where his strengths lie.”

“Never in my lifetime would I have thought I could build the foundation for a new smart city. I’m not qualified for that. But I am qualified to dream big,” Elba told the UK-based newspaper.

Nevertheless, the contrast begs the question: what stands between a “dream” and its “outcome?”

Many people say there are various kinds of dreams: good dreams and bad dreams. They say what separates one dream from another dream is similar to the differences between fantasies and nightmares; the reason why people dream whether they are asleep or wide awake.

Certainly, the UK-based Guardian was grappling with these differences in dreams when reporting on, and contrasting, between Akon’s “dream city project” and Elba’s “dream city project.”

To understand dreams of any kind – and perhaps their differences – one might have to consider the place of the dream and the moment(s) that produced the dream itself. What are the dreamer’s conditions and existential circumstances? What are the internal and external forces that drive an individual(s) to dream?

The totality of the circumstances have to be carefully considered when assessing the place and strength of a given dream. In doing so, we bring ourselves to the starting point of asking, and also debating, whether a particular dream is realistic or unrealistic? What are the dream’s real possibilities? Can those possibilities be actualized? If yes, how can they be actualized?

While thinking about dreams and their realities today, we looked up the “dream city project” of Idris Elba and Siaka Stevens. We looked at the various companies carrying out their dream city project: the Sherbro Alliance Limited and Sherbro Alliance Partners Limited; all incorporated in the UK.

Sherbro Alliance Limited was incorporated on 10th June 2019 as a private limited company (#12040217) under the UK Companies Act 2006. Idris Akuna Elba and Siaka Stevens are the two listed directors and shareholders of the company. On 13th November 2019, the company’s directors applied to voluntarily strike-off the company from the UK Register of Companies, and on 26th November 2019, the Registrar gazetted the application to strike-off the company from the register, and the company was eventually dissolved on 11th February 2020.

The second company, Sherbro Alliance Partners Limited, was also incorporated on 27th September 2019 (#12231721); similarly as a private limited company in England and Wales. Siaka Stevens is the only listed company director. and the company’s shareholders, at the time of registration, are IE7 Holdings Limited and Siaka Stevens; each individually holding 50% shares. IE7 Holdings Limited was incorporated on 3rd April 2019 with Idris Elba as company director.

The unaudited financial statements of Sherbro Alliance Partners Limited for the year ended 31st December 2022 included an unsecured “loan of £2,861,393 due to IEZ Limited.” The loan “attracts an interest rate of 4% above the base rate of the Bank of England for repayments made outside of the repayment dates.” In FY2021, the said loan amounted to £2,227,255, and has since increased by £634,138 by the close of FY2022.

What does this tell us about dreams and their complexities, about the differences in dreams, the varied interpretations of dreams, and the accompanying realities of dreams? How do dreams inform our approach and understanding of nation building and sustainable development?

In any case and by any rate, I attach herewith extract pages showing the registration details of the two Sherbro Alliance companies shouldering the Sherbro city dream project.