African Union backs campaign to replace Mercator map that distorts Africa’s size

The African Union has joined a campaign calling for the widely-used Mercator map, which makes Africa appear smaller than it is, to be replaced with a map that more accurately reflects the continent’s relative size.

AU Commission Deputy Chairperson Selma Malika Haddadi told Reuters when the size of Africa is misrepresented on maps, the world’s perception of the continent is also distorted, including in media, education and policy.

“It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not,” she said.

Organizations such as Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa are leading the “Correct The Map” petition. As of Wednesday evening, the petition was about 800 signatures short of its goal of 5,000.

“By correcting the map, we aim to shift perceptions and highlight the true scale, power, and potential of the African continent,” the campaign explained in a slideshow presentation about the effort, which is provided as a resource on its website.

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Members of the Correct The Map campaign are instead encouraging global entities to adopt the Equal Earth map, which was developed in 2017 by cartographer Tom Patterson and his colleagues.

Patterson’s map projection is what’s known as an equal area map. It shows the true relative sizes of countries and continents, but their shapes are distorted. The Mercator map is conformal, which means shapes are preserved, but actual sizes are distorted.

The Mercator map was developed in 1569 by Gerardus Mercator, a Flemish cartographer. The map allowed explorers to plot their journey in a straight line without having to adjust their compasses.

“That was extremely useful during the age of exploration and European colonialism,” Patterson told NPR. “It almost became the de facto world map.”

On Mercator’s map, Africa appears to be about the same size as Greenland, when in reality, it’s about three times as big, Patterson said.

“That’s just a grotesque distortion, so if you’re using the Mercator map as a world map, say, in the classroom, students would just have a completely warped view of the size of countries in the world,” he said.

Patterson said institutions may choose to use the Mercator map so that when users zoom in, a circular object doesn’t become an oval, for example. Groups like NASA and National Geographic have begun using the Equal Earth map, he said. The World Bank told NPR that it’s phasing out the Mercator map in favor of the Equal Earth map, because it’s “committed to ensuring accurate representation of all people, on all platforms.”

Google Maps made the Mercator map optional on its desktop version in 2018, a company spokesperson said.

Organizers of the Correct The Map campaign s say they’ve reached out to the United Nations to assist in its mission to replace the Mercator map. The UN did not respond to NPR’s requests for comment.

“By making this change, we empower future generations to view Africa not through a lens of distortion or disrespect, but through one of clarity, respect, and African opportunity,” the campaign organizers laid out in the slideshow presentation.