Mercator Map

The African Union (AU) has officially endorsed the “Correct the Map” campaign, which advocates for replacing the widely used Mercator map with a more accurate representation of the world. This campaign, led by advocacy groups Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa, aims to correct a long-standing cartographic distortion that has minimized Africa’s perceived global significance.

The Distortion of the Mercator Map

Created in the 16th century for nautical navigation, the Mercator projection is a cylindrical map that keeps lines of constant compass bearing as straight lines.

While this feature made it incredibly useful for sailors, it came at a significant cost: the distortion of landmass sizes. The farther a region is from the equator, the more its size is exaggerated.

This distortion leads to common misperceptions, such as:

• Africa’s True Size: On a Mercator map, Greenland appears to be roughly the same size as Africa. In reality, Africa is approximately 14 times larger than Greenland.
• Exaggerated Northern Lands: Countries near the poles, like Canada, Russia, and much of Europe and North America, appear much larger than they are, while continents near the equator, such as Africa and South America, appear disproportionately smaller.

The Equal Earth Alternative

• The “Correct the Map” campaign urges governments and international organizations to adopt the Equal Earth projection.
• This map, developed in 2018, is designed to accurately reflect the true sizes of countries and continents. It has a visually pleasing shape and avoids the extreme distortion of the Mercator.
• Although the Mercator projection is still used in many schools and for navigation apps like Google Maps (on its mobile version), organizations like the World Bank are already phasing it out in favor of more accurate projections.
• The campaign has also formally requested that the United Nations adopt the Equal Earth map as its standard