'Correct the Map': African Union pushes to end centuries-old Mercator map distortions

For centuries, Africa has been misrepresented, not just in trade or colonial history, but also on classroom wall maps, which shrink its true size and global significance.

From Rabat to Lagos, students have grown up staring at the famous Mercator projection, a 16th-century design that makes Africa look only a touch larger than Greenland. In reality, the continent is approximately 14 times larger.

On 14 August, the African Union (AU) formally endorsed the "Correct the Map" campaign, which has long described the Mercator projection as "the world's longest-running disinformation campaign."

The AU wants schools, governments, and global institutions to ditch Mercator and adopt the Equal Earth projection, a 2018 design that gives Africa its full spread.

"It might look like just a map, but it's not," said Selma Malika Haddadi, the AU Commission's deputy chairperson.

"It has entrenched stereotypes that Africa is marginal, when in fact it's the world's second-largest continent with more than a billion people."

The scale is significant: the United States, China, India, Japan, and most of Western Europe could fit within Africa's borders with space remaining.

The Mercator map, created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569, was effective for navigation but unsuitable for comparing landmass sizes.

It exaggerates the size of northern regions such as Canada, Russia, and Greenland, while minimizing equatorial areas like Africa and South America.

The AU states that adopting the Equal Earth projection is part of restoring Africa's rightful place on the global stage, alongside ongoing calls for reparations for colonialism and slavery.

Campaigners are urging the UN, World Bank, and major technology companies to adopt the new map as well.

The World Bank reports it is already transitioning away from Mercator for its online maps, while Google Maps now offers the two maps options on its desk version. 

Beyond Africa, other regions are rallying behind the effort.

Dorbrene O'Marde, Vice Chair of the Caribbean Community's (CARICOM) Reparations Commission, endorsed Equal Earth as a rejection of what he called the Mercator map's "ideology of power and dominance."

The distortions have even influenced political perceptions.

In January, US President Donald Trump floated the idea of acquiring Greenland, impressed by its apparent size on the Mercator projection. 

"I love maps … and I ­always said, look at the size of this. It's massive! That should be part of the United States," he told reporters. 

In reality, the island is smaller than a single African nation, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Trump has also suggested annexing Canada, another country exaggerated by the map.

During the Cold War, the Mercator projection was similarly employed as a tool of cartographic propaganda. Exaggerating the size of the Soviet Union, it portrayed it as a bigger threat than it actually was.

This manipulation of map projections helped shape widespread perceptions in the US, reinforcing fears of Soviet dominance and justifying extensive military and political strategies.

While the AU's campaign specifically focuses on Africa's misrepresentation, adopting a more accurate projection would also correct distortions worldwide, including in the Middle East, giving regions a truer sense of their size. 

Whether the effort succeeds will depend on African education ministries, international organisations, and mapping platforms.

But for the AU, the aim is to correct centuries of cartographic distortion and, in doing so, restore Africa's rightful place on the map, literally and politically.