The Mercator world map, long a fixture in classrooms globally, makes the European Union appear almost as large as Africa. In reality, Africa is more than seven times bigger.

For centuries, the maps used to understand the world have distorted Africa’s size compared to most northerly nations.

The African Union has endorsed the #CorrectTheMap Campaign, a call for the United Nations and the wider global community to use a different kind of world map.

Devlina Sarkar is a Newsweek contributor based in New Delhi, India. Her focus and passion is all things golf, as well as film. Devlina has been with Newsweek since February, 2025 and previously wrote ...

The African Union has endorsed the #CorrectTheMap Campaign, a call for the United Nations and the wider global community to use a different kind of world map. The campaign currently has over 4,500 ...

The African Union is officially fed up with the 16 th -century representation of its continent that the world has accepted as the norm. The AU, which comprises 55 African nations, has set off on a ...

The Mercator projection, a centuries-old map style from the age of sail, still prevails in the internet age. Here’s what the African Union wants to use instead ...

A campaign group is pushing to have the current world map "corrected" to show Africa is actually larger than the current Mercator projection.

The African Union is fighting to correct the misrepresentation of the African continent. By advocating for maps that reflect Africa’s true size, the AU aims to ensure a more accurate representation of ...