The African Union (AU) has backed a campaign to end the use by governments and international organizations of the 16th-century Mercator map of the world in favor of one that more accurately displays Africa’s size.
Created by cartographer Gerardus Mercator for navigation, the projection distorts continent sizes, enlarging areas near the poles such as North America and Greenland, while shrinking Africa and South America.
“It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not,” AU Commission Deputy Chairperson Selma Malika Haddadi said, adding that the Mercator fostered a false impression that Africa was “marginal,” despite being the world’s second-largest continent by area, with more than 1 billion people. The AU has 55 member states.
Photo: Reuters
Such stereotypes influence media, education and policy, she said.
Criticism of the Mercator map is not new, but the “Correct The Map” campaign led by advocacy groups Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa has revived the debate, urging organizations to adopt the 2018 Equal Earth projection, which tries to reflect countries’ true sizes.
“The current size of the map of Africa is wrong,” Africa No Filter executive director Moky Makura said. “It’s the world’s longest misinformation and disinformation campaign, and it just simply has to stop.”
Fara Ndiaye, co-founder of Speak Up Africa, said the Mercator affected Africans’ identity and pride, especially children who might encounter it early in school.
“We’re actively working on promoting a curriculum where the Equal Earth projection will be the main standard across all [African] classrooms,” Ndiaye said, adding she hoped it would also be the one used by global institutions, including Africa-based ones.
Haddadi said the AU endorsed the campaign, adding it aligned with its goal of “reclaiming Africa’s rightful place on the global stage” amid growing calls for reparations for colonialism and slavery.
The AU would advocate for wider map adoption and discuss collective actions with member states, Haddadi added.
The Mercator projection is still widely used, including by schools and tech companies. Google Maps switched from Mercator on desktop to a 3D globe view in 2018, although users can still switch back to the Mercator if they prefer.
However, on the mobile app, the Mercator projection remains the default.
Correct The Map wants organizations such as the World Bank and the UN to adopt the Equal Earth projection — an equal-area design created in 2018 to fairly represent the true size of countries.
A World Bank spokesperson said they already use the Winkel Tripel projection — a compromise design minimizing distortion, adopted by National Geographic — or Equal Earth for static maps, and are phasing out Mercator on Web site maps.
Additional reporting by staff writer
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
South Korea would soon no longer be one of the few countries where Google Maps does not work properly, after its security-conscious government reversed a two-decade stance to approve the export of high-precision map data to overseas servers. The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met,” the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. Those conditions include blurring military and other sensitive security-related facilities, as well as restricting longitude and latitude coordinates for South Korean territory on products such as Google Maps and Google Earth, it said. The decision is expected to hurt Naver and Kakao
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
RSS