The projection of Mercator, designed by the Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator in the 16th century for maritime navigation, is still today the model most often privileged to represent the world on the planisphere. But according to Fara Ndiaye, deputy director of the organization Speak Up AfricAt the origin of the “correct the map” campaign, it is an erroneous vision. She explains to our colleagues from RFI: “It artificially grows Europe and North America artificially, while reducing the size of Africa by about half. And this distortion, it is not neutral: it shapes our collective imagination, influences school programs and also media representations. When an African child, in particular our African children, sees their continent rapestified, this also decreases a certain feeling of pride and the importance that this child attaches to his identity. So ultimately, for us, correcting the map, it is much more than a technical question: it is a strong symbolic act which affects dignity, justice and the story that we want to build around the African continent “.
In its promotional video on YouTube, the campaign exhibits several examples. On the projection of Mercator, Greenland (2.1 million km²) seems almost as large as Africa (30.4 million km²), while it is actually 14 times smaller. It also shows that Africa could contain the United States, China, India, Japan, Mexico, and almost all of Europe.
Here is the actual size of the countries of the world
To replace this card, Speak Up Africa Defends the projection “Equal Earth”, deemed more faithful to the real sizes of continents.“ For us, the projection Equal Earth is an educational tool that could quite be used in schools, through the media and the different institutions, because it really allows to show a balanced world where each continent finds its real weight, which is not at all the case of the Mercator projection “, concludes Fara Ndiaye.
From Mercator to Google Maps, draw the world to master it
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