African Union Backs "Correct The Map" Campaign to Replace Mercator Projection with Equal Earth Model
The African Union (AU) has announced its support for the "Correct The Map" campaign, which advocates for replacing the Mercator projection with the Equal Earth model, a more accurate representation of the continents' real surface areas. The initiative, led by NGOs Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa, aims to correct a biased perception of Africa still widely perpetuated in school textbooks and online maps.
The Mercator projection, designed in 1569 for navigation, preserves the shapes of continents but distorts their surfaces. It amplifies regions near the poles and reduces those near the equator. As a result, Africa appears only slightly larger than Greenland, when in reality it covers 30.37 million km² compared to Greenland's 2.16 million km², a 15-fold difference.
The campaign proposes adopting the Equal Earth projection, introduced in 2018, which accurately restores the proportions of continents while offering readability suitable for educational uses. The World Bank already uses this model for certain static maps and is gradually phasing out Mercator for its interactive maps.
By backing this cartographic reform, the African Union seeks to "restore Africa's rightful place" on the international stage. However, the initiative's success depends on its integration into African countries' school curricula, adoption by international organizations, and updates to digital tools, where the Mercator projection remains the norm, notably on Google Maps.
