‘Maps Are Not Innocent Drawings’: Africa Demands Its True Size Be Shown

‘Maps are not innocent drawings’: Africa demands its true size be shown

“A map is not just a technical tool, but a symbol, and symbols matter. For us, correcting the map also means correcting the global narrative about Africa,” says Fara Ndiaye, co-founder and deputy executive director of Speak Up Africa, one of the organizations behind Correct the Map. The African Union (AU) has just endorsed this initiative, which seeks to force governments, international organizations, and educational organizations to stop using …

African Union Demands End to ‘Colonial’ Map That Shrinks Africa

The African Union has officially called for the end of the Mercator projection map in schools, international institutions, and media due to what it describes as geographic disinformation that minimizes Africa’s true size. The 55-member body is backing the “Correct the Map” campaign and promoting the Equal Earth projection, a newer mapping standard that more accurately reflects landmass proportions across continents. The initiative is aimed at re…

A whole new world: redrawing the Mercator map

"On classroom walls from Lagos to London", the standard map of the world depicts an "inflated Britain at the centre" and a dramatically "shrunken Africa", said The Times.But this could soon change. The African Union has thrown its weight behind a "Correct the Map" campaign, calling for an end to the use of the standard Mercator map in favour of one that accurately reflects the scale of the world's second-largest continent."It might seem to be ju…