African Union Backs Campaign to Replace Distorted World Map not Showing Africa’s Real Size

The African Union (AU) has thrown its weight behind a global campaign to replace the 16th-century Mercator projection with a map that more accurately reflects Africa’s true size.

Originally designed by cartographer Gerardus Mercator for navigation, the Mercator map inflates landmasses near the poles such as Greenland and North America while shrinking Africa and South America. Critics argue that this distortion has long reinforced perceptions of Africa as marginal.

“It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not,” AU Commission deputy chairperson Selma Malika Haddadi told Reuters. She said the projection fostered stereotypes that shaped education, media, and policy, despite Africa being the world’s second-largest continent with more than a billion people.

The push, led by advocacy groups Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa, calls for governments and institutions to adopt the 2018 Equal Earth projection. “The current size of the map of Africa is wrong,” said Moky Makura, executive director of Africa No Filter. “It’s the world’s longest misinformation and disinformation campaign, and it just simply has to stop.”

Speak Up Africa co-founder Fara Ndiaye added that distorted maps hurt African identity, particularly among schoolchildren. Her group is pushing for the Equal Earth projection to become the standard in classrooms across Africa and hopes it will be adopted by global institutions as well.

The AU said supporting the campaign aligns with its broader mission of reclaiming Africa’s rightful place in global affairs, amid growing calls for reparations for slavery and colonialism. Haddadi confirmed that the union will advocate for adoption of the Equal Earth map and consult with member states on collective action.

While tech companies and schools still widely use Mercator, some organizations are shifting away. Google Maps replaced it with a 3D globe view on desktop in 2018, and the World Bank said it is phasing out Mercator in favor of Winkel-Tripel and Equal Earth maps. The campaign has also submitted a request to the UN geospatial body for formal review.

Support is building beyond Africa. Dorbrene O’Marde, vice chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Reparations Commission, endorsed Equal Earth as a rejection of the Mercator’s “ideology of power and dominance.”