African Union backs campaign to replace map that shrinks Africa : NPR
The African Union has joined a campaign calling for a widely used Mercator card, which makes Africa smaller than it is, to be replaced by a card which more precisely reflects the relative size of the continent.
The president of the UA commission Selma Malika Haddadi said to Reuters When the size of Africa is distorted on the maps, the global perception of the continent is also distorted, including in the media, education and politics.
“It may seem just a card, but in reality, it is not the case,” she said.
Organizations like Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa direct the petition “Correct the card”. Wednesday evening, the petition was around 800 signatures unless its 5,000 target.
“By correcting the card, we aim to move perceptions and highlight the true scale, power and potential of the African continent”, ” The campaign explained in a slideshow Presentation on the effort, which is provided as a resource on its website.
Members of the Correct The Map campaign rather encourage global entities to adopt the Equal Earth card, which was developed in 2017 by the cartographer Tom Patterson and his colleagues.
The projection of the Patterson card is called a map of the equal area. It shows the real relative sizes of countries and continents, but their forms are distorted. The Mercator card is consistent, which means that the forms are preserved, but the real sizes are distorted.
The Mercator card was developed in 1569 by Gerardus Mercator, a Flemish cartographer. The card allowed the explorers to trace their journey in a straight line without having to adjust their compasses.
“It was extremely useful in the era of European exploration and colonialism,” Patterson told NPR. “It almost became the de facto world map.”
On the Mercator map, Africa seems to be about the same size as Greenland, he said. In reality, it’s about 14 times larger.
“If you use the Mercator card as a world card, for example, in class, students just have a completely distorted vision of the size of the worlds of the world,” said Patterson.
Around 1798: Chart du Monde on the projection of Mercator, with the most recent discoveries.
Hulton Archive / Getty Images
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Patterson said that institutions can choose to use the Mercator card so that when zoomous users, a circular object does not become an oval, for example. Groups like NASA and the National Geographic began to use the Earth’s card equal, he said. The World Bank told NPR that it removed the Mercator card in favor of the Equal Earth card, because it is “determined to ensure a precise representation of all people, on all platforms”.
Google Maps made the Mercator card optional on its office version in 2018, said a company spokesperson.
The organizers of the correct card campaign say they contacted the United Nations to help their mission replace the Mercator card. The UN did not respond to the requests for NPR comments.
“By making this change, we allow future generations to see Africa not through a distortion or disrespect lens, but by clarity, respect and African opportunities,” the campaign organizers explained in the presentation of the slideshow.
