The Problem with AU’s Bigger Map Proposal

The problem with AU’s bigger map proposal

The African Union has thrown its weight behind a campaign for a more accurate world map that shows how big Africa really is. Popular maps in use often show that Africa is roughly the size of Greenland when, in fact, it is nearly 14 times bigger.I have explored some of the politics of world maps on social media.The AU’s concerns are hardly new. In the 1970s and 1980s, the same debate raged fiercely until it was resolved in favor of the maxim, “us…

Redraw world map ‘to show greatness of Africa’, demand nations

The Mercator projection, in use since the 16th century, makes the continent look comparatively small

Moving away from Mercator for maps of the world

For Reuters, Catarina Demony and Ayendeng Bior report on the African Union’s push for the Equal Area projection (above) instead of the ill-used Mercator projection: “It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not,” AU Commission deputy chairperson Selma Malika Haddadi told Reuters, saying the Mercator fostered a false impression that Africa was “marginal”, despite being the world’s second-largest continent by area, with over a billion…

Australian National Review - Redraw World Map ‘to Show Greatness of Africa’, Demand Nations

Australian National Review is Australia’s first real free and independent press, one with no editorial control by the elite, but a publication that can generate critical thinkers and critical debate and hold those spreading mistruths and deliberate propaganda in mainstream media to account.