by African nations demand that the world map are re -drawn to show the “size of the continent”.
The African Union has announced that most cards distort the size of land masses and make Africa appear much smaller compared to other countries and continents.
The 55-nation block has thrown its weight behind activists who argue that the distortion leads to a downplay of the scale and meaning of the continent and America and Europe look larger than they are.
The Mercator projection used since the 16th century, which is one of the most common maps in the world, makes Africa look comparatively small if it continues to flash the land masses from the equator.
This means that Greenland looks almost as big as Africa when it is actually smaller than the Arabian Peninsula. Africa is 14 times larger.
The African Union supports the correct campaign to promote the 2018 projection as an alternative because “it shows the continent as it really is: huge, powerful and central to our world”.
Activists want this map to be used by international bodies such as the United Nations as well as in classrooms and in the media.
The campaign says: “In a world in which the size is often equated with power, the wrong representation of the true scale of Africa increases harmful misunderstandings about its geopolitical and economic importance.
“You could insert the United States, China, India, Japan, Japan, Mexico and a large part of Europe in Africa.
“But most of the world prefers to distort this [Mercator] Card, missign African scale and reduction of its importance. “
The African Union believes that the takeover of a card, in order to show the size of the continent better, will give Africans and those around the world a greater idea of its importance.
One official said: “When Africa can be seen in its true size, I think from a continental point of view, the Africans will be able to recognize the size of the continent and recognize how big it is.”
It is also of the opinion that the move of the international community would give a better insight into the trade and transport difficulties that represent the enormous distances of the continent.
Year Map Making problem
Nick Millea, a card curator in Oxfords Bodleian libraries, said all cards generated distortions because it was impossible to draw a globe exactly on a flat surface.
The Mercator projection was introduced in 1569 by Gerardus Mercator, the Flemish cartographer. It was widespread because it was good for navigation and a straight line on the map means a straight course in the real world.
A form of the card is the standard for online mapping. However, the Mercator was bad to show the relative sizes of land masses.
Mr. Millea said: “It is the centuries -old problem to project a spherical object onto a flat surface: you can’t do it. Something has to give something to find an image.
“When it comes to the area [the Mercator projection] doesn’t work. When it comes to the direction, it does. “
Such compromises in the production of cards mean that the same earth projection has its own defects and distorts the shape of the continents, even if it reflects the surface.
Organizations such as NASA and the World Bank said they had already taken over the same earth map for some uses.
Jervin Naidoo, a political analyst at Oxford Analytics, said: “The distorted representation of the size of Africa could lead to an underestimation of the great economic potential of the continent.
“By presenting the true scale of Africa exactly, the campaign aims to redesign the global perceptions and promote more well -founded investment decisions.”
