The African Union approves the campaign to finally repair the cards which massively underestimate the actual size of the continent

The criticism that Mercator’s projection does not precisely reflect the actual size of Africa is not new.

However, a recent campaign by African Advocacy Groups is gaining momentum because it urges organizations and schools to adopt equal land projection, which according to them, displays more than 1.4 billion people.

The African Union, the diplomatic organization of the continent with 55 member countries, approved the campaign last week in what defenders call an important step.

Here is what you need to know about the effort to show the true size of Africa to the world.

Africa seems too small on most modern cards

The Mercator map was created in the 16th century by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator. Designed to help European browsers at sea, the map has distorted land males by widening regions near poles such as North America and Greenland while shrinking Africa and South America.

The 2018 Equal Equal Earth projection is a modern map that follows the curvature of the earth and shows the continents in their real proportions, unlike the distorted Mercator card.

Mercator projection is always common in classrooms and technological platforms. Google Maps abandoned the widely used projection for a 3D globe on the desktop in 2018, but users can return to the old card. The mobile application is always by default Mercator projection.

Group campaign to replace the global card

Two African plea groups, Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa, launched a campaign in April to push schools, followed by international organizations and the media, to use the projection of equal land, which more precisely says the true size of Africa.

“Correcting the card is not only an African problem. It is a question of truth and precision that concerns the whole world. When whole generations, in Africa and elsewhere, learn from a distorted card, they develop a biased vision of the role of Africa in the world, “said Fara Ndiaye, co-founder and deputy executive director of Speak Up Africa.

For non-Africans, a narrowed representation of Africa minimizes its demographic, economic and strategic meaning, added Ndiaye.

The African union has approved the campaign on August 14, the largest organization to the campaign so far, marking an important step for the card change campaign.

The geographers say that the Mercator projection is obsolete

Mark Monmonier, professor of geography at the University of Syracuse, said that Mercator projection is obsolete and that geographers have long advised people not to use it as a world card.

“It was a useful navigation tool in the 16th century, because it has straight lines, giving navigators a constant navigating steering line,” said Monmonier. “But apart from this very narrow navigation application, it is useless to use it.”

While the cards according to the curvature of the earth, such as the equal projection of the earth, offer a more precise scale of real continent sizes, it has nevertheless warned that bar graphics remain the best way to compare the sizes of different continents.

“When you put irregular areas on flat paper, people will have trouble comparing with precision the size of the masses,” said Monmonier.