• AU launches campaign to replace distorted Mercator map projection
• Equal Earth map promoted to show Africa’s true size
• Goal: restore Africa’s global image in education and media

The African Union is campaigning for a new standard in cartography to correct what it calls a distorted, marginalizing view of the continent.

On the familiar Mercator projection map, Africa appears only slightly larger than Greenland. But in reality, Africa is 15 times larger, covering 30.37 million square kilometers compared to Greenland's 2.16 million.

This distortion fosters a false impression of a "marginal" Africa, despite its status as the world's second-largest continent with 54 countries and over a billion people, said Selma Malika Haddadi, Vice President of the AU Commission.

The "Correct The Map" campaign, an initiative by Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa, is promoting the adoption of the 2018 Equal Earth map model in African school curricula and by international organizations. The World Bank has already begun using Equal Earth for some static maps and is reducing its use of Mercator on web maps.

Developed in 1569 by Gerardus Mercator to aid naval navigation during the triangular trade era, the Mercator projection preserves the shapes of continents but distorts their sizes. Areas near the poles are enlarged, while those near the equator, such as Africa and South America, are shrunk.

Today, this distortion remains prevalent in school textbooks and media. The AU hopes this cartographic reform will become a tool to "restore Africa's legitimate place" on the global stage. It plans to work with member states and major international institutions to promote the change.

However, the initiative's success will depend on its adoption by African education ministries, the decisions of international organizations, and the updating of online mapping tools where Mercator remains the norm, especially on mobile apps like Google Maps.

 Olivier de Souza