As momentum builds on the campaign to adopt a “correct map” of Africa, older generations who were taught using the Mercator projection throughout their lives are voicing various views around the recent debate. For many, the map was simply part of the classroom furniture, a tool that defined their earliest understanding of the world. But as Moky Makura, the executive director at Africa No Filter, explains, it’s much more than that.A friend of mine is one of those (annoying?) people who seem to know everything and have the facts to back it up.
Over the years, we’ve had many debates where I relied on what felt obvious, what was everywhere around me. He would patiently listen, then remind me of the old saying: “A thousand wrongs don’t make a right.”
And often, annoyingly, he was right. In other words, just because something is repeated, reinforced, and accepted doesn’t mean it is true. His words have never felt more relevant than when it comes to how we see the world – literally.
For 450 years, the Mercator projection has been the dominant world map. It is in our classrooms, our atlases, our PowerPoints, our design templates, and our Google searches. We see it so often that it feels unquestionable. And yet, it is wrong.
Introduced in 1569, the Mercator map systematically shrinks Africa and the Global South while inflating Europe and North America. It was a map designed for navigation, not truth. But centuries later, it continues to distort our reality, and in doing so, distorts our sense of who matters in the world. Maps are not neutral. They have always been political weapons.
It really is time to correct the map and show the continent as we are. The Equal Earth projection gives us a true, proportionate view of the world. It exists. It’s accessible. And there is a growing movement to make it the new standard. ESRI, the global leader in geographic software, has already partnered with the #CorrectTheMap campaign. We’ve reached out to National Geographic, one of the most influential map publishers in the world, to join.
But to succeed, we need the world’s most powerful platforms and publishers to act: Google, Microsoft, Canva, QGIS, Pearson, Oxford University Press, Collins. If Equal Earth becomes the default in Google Maps, in PowerPoint and Slides, in Canva templates and school atlases, then teachers, students, journalists, and policymakers everywhere will finally see the world as it truly is.
Right now, if you type “world map” into Google Maps, you still get Mercator’s lie. Ask ChatGPT to draw a world map and its default is the wrong projection. This isn’t a matter of us not knowing better. This is a matter of choice.
Correcting the map is more than a cartographic issue. It is a statement that Africa and the Global South will no longer be underestimated.
A thousand wrongs don’t make a right. It’s time to get this right. Join us. #CorrectTheMap.
Moky Makura is the Executive Director at Africa No Filter, an advocacy organisation that is shifting stereotypical narratives about Africa by supporting storytelling that reflects a dynamic continent of progress, innovation and opportunity. Africa No Filter exists because many stories about Africa still lazily revolve around the single story of poor leadership, poverty, corruption, disease, and conflict, failing to portray the other more progressive side of Africa and collectively perpetuating the narrative that Africa is broken, dependent, and lacks agency.
