The African Union is promoting the Equal Area map projection to portray geographic size accurately. AU Commission deputy chairperson Selma Malika Haddadi said the Mercator projection fostered a false impression that Africa was marginal, despite being the world's second-largest continent by area with over a billion people. The AU comprises 55 member states. Such stereotypes affect media portrayals, educational materials and policymaking. The Mercator projection remains useful for navigation and location directions, but distorts relative sizes on world maps, making Africa appear much smaller than its true area.
It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not, AU Commission deputy chairperson Selma Malika Haddadi told Reuters, saying the Mercator fostered a false impression that Africa was "marginal", despite being the world's second-largest continent by area, with over a billion people. The AU has 55 member states. Such stereotypes influence media, education and policy, she said.
The Mercator projection is good for location directions, but for world maps, the size of countries and continents is not proportional to reality. Africa in particular looks much smaller than it is with Mercator.
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