The African Union has officially endorsed the “Correct The Map” campaign, urging countries and global institutions to replace the outdated Mercator projection with the more accurate Equal Earth projection. The Mercator map has long distorted the size of continents, shrinking Africa and South America while inflating regions near the poles like Europe and North America.

AU leaders argue that this distortion reinforces harmful perceptions of Africa’s importance on the global stage. The move is supported by groups like Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa, who are pushing for the Equal Earth projection to be taught in schools and adopted by major organisations such as the UN and World Bank.

Some progress is already happening — the World Bank is phasing out Mercator in its static maps, and Google has introduced globe views on desktop. The AU hopes this step will help reshape how future generations see the world, putting Africa in its rightful proportion.