The African Union, AU, has thrown its support behind a campaign calling for the abandonment of the 16th-century Mercator map in favour of projections that more accurately represent Africa’s true size.
AU Commission deputy chairperson, Selma Haddadi, argued that the distorted image reinforces outdated perceptions of Africa as marginal, despite it being the world’s second-largest continent, home to 54 nations and over a billion people. He noed that such misrepresentations seep into education, media, and policy, subtly shaping global attitudes and decision-making.
Originally created by cartographer Gerardus Mercator for navigation, the widely used map distorts the relative sizes of continents, making regions near the poles appear much larger while shrinking Africa and South America.
