The Biggest Lie in Geography: Why It’s Time to Correct the Map on Africa

The Biggest Lie in Geography: Why It’s Time to Correct the Map on Africa

For too long, the world has lived under a cartographic illusion that has profoundly shaped our understanding of power, influence, and place. At the heart of this lie is the Mercator projection, a 16th-century map design that distorts the true size of continents. The biggest casualty? Africa. Despite spanning over 30 million square kilometres—large enough [...] Source from InfoStride News

For centuries, the world has been misled into the real size of Africa. Mercator's map, one of the most widely used, has narrowed the continent, distorting its scale and reducing its scope to a global scale. This is "the greatest lie in geography," support the advocacy organization Africa No Filter and the political action group Speak Up Africa that launch the campaign "Correct the map", a global petition, with the aim of "correcting the map and …

Call to correct Africa’s map distortion

For centuries, the Mercator map – one of the most widely used world maps – has shrunk the African continent, distorting its scale and minimising its global significance. Africa covers 30,37-million square kilometers – large enough to fit the US, China, India and most of Europe combined. Yet in classrooms, newsrooms, publications and boardrooms worldwide, the Mercator projection presents Africa as much smaller than it really is. Designed for 16th…

The Biggest Lie in Geography Is About Africa—And It’s Time to Correct It

For centuries, the world has been misled about Africa’s true size. The Mercator map—one of the most widely used world maps—has shrunk the continent, distorting its scale and minimizing its global significance.