For generations, schools, media outlets and decision-makers have relied on a familiar world map. It has become a global standard, seen everywhere from classroom posters to government buildings. But ...

The 1569 Mercator map did not merely misrepresent Africa’s size—it mutilated its dignity and incapacitated its destiny. From the moment Gerardus Mercator shrank Africa on paper, the continent was ...

In 1569, Flemish mapmaker Gerardus Mercator synthesized existing ideas in navigation and cartography to create a new type of world map. It has stood the test of time: Billions of people would ...

Explore how Africa’s colonial borders still shape politics, conflicts, and identities across the continent today.

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: The African Union has started an effort to oust the Mercator projection map and replace it with what it says is a more accurately drawn map. The 16 ...

Do you know how big Africa really is? According to experts, most of us don’t, and it’s because the maps we grew up with weren’t telling the full story. Earlier this month, the African Union endorsed a ...

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 has joined a campaign calling for the widely-used Mercator map, which makes Africa appear smaller than it is, to be replaced with a map that more accurately reflects the continent's ...

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. It is a distortion that ...

A little-known element is shedding light on the transatlantic slave trade. Researchers have assembled a map of strontium, a naturally occurring element, across sub-Saharan Africa. These data can be ...

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 ...