The African Union (AU) has thrown its weight behind a global campaign calling for the replacement of the centuries-old Mercator projection with a map that more accurately represents Africa’s true size.
The campaign, dubbed “Correct The Map,” is spearheaded by advocacy groups Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa.
It urges governments, international organisations, and educational institutions to abandon the Mercator projection, created in the 16th century by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, in favour of the Equal Earth projection, developed in 2018 to reflect countries’ proportions more accurately.
The Mercator projection, designed for navigation, significantly distorts the size of landmasses by enlarging regions near the poles, such as North America and Greenland, while shrinking Africa and South America.
“It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not,” AU Commission Deputy Chairperson Selma Malika Haddadi told Reuters.
She warned that the Mercator map has fostered a false perception of Africa as “marginal,” despite the continent being the world’s second largest by area, with 54 countries and over a billion people.
Such distortions, Haddadi said, influence global media, education, and policymaking.
“This is about reclaiming Africa’s rightful place on the global stage,” she added, noting that the AU’s endorsement aligns with broader calls for reparations for colonialism and slavery.
Africa No Filter’s Executive Director Moky Makura described the Mercator’s portrayal of the continent as “the world’s longest misinformation and disinformation campaign,” while Speak Up Africa co-founder Fara Ndiaye stressed its impact on African identity and pride, especially among children first exposed to it in schools.
The campaign’s goals include embedding the Equal Earth projection in African school curricula and pushing for its adoption by global institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank.
The latter has already begun phasing out Mercator for static maps in favour of Winkel-Tripel and Equal Earth projections.
The AU will now advocate for wider adoption of the Equal Earth map among its member states and engage in collective action to accelerate the shift.
The movement has also gained international support. Dorbrene O’Marde, Vice Chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Reparations Commission, endorsed the campaign, calling the Equal Earth projection a rejection of the Mercator’s “ideology of power and dominance.”
Despite the growing push, the Mercator projection remains widely used, including in tech platforms like Google Maps, which switched to a 3D globe view on desktop in 2018 but still defaults to Mercator on mobile devices.
For supporters of “Correct The Map,” changing the world’s default view is not just a matter of geography; it is an act of restoring truth, identity, and dignity to Africa.