Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
On most world maps, Africa looks modest—smaller than Greenland. In reality? It’s 14 times bigger. This cartographic lie has shaped minds for centuries.
The Mercator map wasn’t just a sailor’s tool—it was an empire’s weapon. By enlarging Europe and shrinking the Global South, it quietly justified conquest.
Greenland appears the same size as Africa on many maps. But Africa can fit 14 Greenlands. Why have we been taught a lie this blatant?
A 2001 episode of The West Wing mocked the Mercator map’s bias. Twenty years later, the African Union wants the world to take that satire seriously.
In 2017, Boston schools switched to the Peters projection. Why? Because teaching kids with a distorted world map isn't education—it’s indoctrination.
Most of us think maps are facts. But the Mercator map is a worldview—one that inflates power and deflates continents that were colonized.
The African Union is endorsing the Equal Earth map—a 2018 projection that restores proportionality, geography, and dignity to distorted continents.
Mercator’s grid helped sailors in the 1500s. Today, it helps uphold outdated hierarchies. Critics say it’s time we updated the map—and the mindset.
Africa isn't just geographically massive—it’s rich, young, and rising. Changing the map isn’t cosmetic. It’s reclaiming visibility, influence, and truth.