What’s the issue with the way Africa is shown on maps? | Explained

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Mukunth, V. (2026, September 6). What’s the issue with the way Africa is shown on maps? | Explained. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/whats-the-issue-with-the-way-africa-is-shown-on-maps-explained/article69963529.ece

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

The Hindu · collected 2026-09-06 · by Vasudevan Mukunth

Quick Summary

The African Union has endorsed the "Correct the Map" campaign to replace the Mercator map projection with alternative projections that accurately represent landmass sizes. The AU claims that the Mercator projection distorts Africa's size compared to other continents, inflating Europe and North America instead. The Mercator projection was designed in 1569 by Gerardus Mercator to solve navigation problems for sailors, but it systematically alters geographical proportions.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-06, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

September 4th, 164 countries, including France and the UK, voted in favor of a resolution at the UN General Assembly to adopt a new world map that more accurately reflects the size of Africa. Only the US voted against it, with six other states abstaining. The new map, known as the Equal Earth cartographic projection, aims to provide a more accurate representation of continental landmasses and reduce distortions caused by the traditional Mercator projection, which has been widely used since the 16th century. According to Foreign Minister Robert Dussey of Togo, "a fair world begins with a fair map," highlighting the importance of cartography in shaping our understanding of the world. The resolution promotes the use of the Equal Earth projection over the Mercator projection, which distorts the relative size of land masses by expanding those nearer the poles, making Greenland appear roughly the same size as Africa, although Africa is about 14 times larger.

Written for “UN Adopts New World Map” on 2026-10-21, grounded in this article and the 24 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 UN Adopts New World Map
World · 25 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans left and hedges 17% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
UN votes to adopt new world map to reflect Africa's true size same event · 100%
BBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 4% hedged 1 of 26 📰 publisher trust 69
“Both articles report on the UN General Assembly's vote to replace the Mercator map with a more accurate representation of Africa's size, sponsored by Togo and backed by the African Union.”
Australia and Africa expand, North America and Europe shrink: UN adopts new world map same event · 100%
The Sydney Morning Herald
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 26 📰 publisher trust 61
“Both articles describe the United Nations' adoption of a new world map that more accurately reflects countries' true size, citing efforts by African states to correct the Mercator map's distortions.”
What different world maps get right - and what they get wrong same event · 100%
BBC News
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 3% hedged 1 of 34 📰 publisher trust 69
“Both articles report on the adoption by the UN and endorsement by the African Union of a 'Correct the Map' resolution to replace the Mercator map with the Equal Earth projection, highlighting the distortion of Africa's size on maps.”
UN endorses new map that shows Africa's size more accurately same event · 100%
CBS News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 15 📰 publisher trust 66
“Both articles describe the UN General Assembly endorsing a new map that accurately represents Africa's size on the same day (2026-09-06)”
United Nations adopt new world map that shows Africa much bigger and cuts size of UK and US same event · 100%
Daily Mail
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 4% hedged 1 of 23 📰 publisher trust 64
“Both articles report on the United Nations adopting a resolution to replace the Mercator map with the Equal Earth projection, specifically citing the 'Correct the Map' campaign and its goal of increasing Africa's size.”
U.N. approves resolution in support of map that shows Africa’s true size same event · 100%
The Hindu
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 2 📰 publisher trust 60
“Both articles report on the United Nations approving a resolution in support of a map that shows Africa's true size, on September 5/6, 2026.”
UN votes to approve new world map which will show true size of Africa same event · 100%
The Independent
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 8% hedged 2 of 25 📰 publisher trust 59
“Both articles report on the UN general assembly voting to replace the Mercator map with a new one that accurately represents the size of Africa, which occurred on the same day in 2026.”
U.N. approves resolution in support of map that shows Africa’s true size different event · 90%
The Hindu
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 17 📰 publisher trust 60
“Article B mentions the African Union's endorsement of the 'Correct the Map' campaign, which happened after the UN resolution approved in Article A”
Africa bigger, US smaller as UN votes to adopt a new world map different event · 90%
ABC News (AU)
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 21 📰 publisher trust 68
“Article A reports on the UN voting to adopt a new map, while Article B explains the issue with current maps and mentions the AU endorsing a campaign for change, but does not describe the same specific event”
The U.N. backs a new world map showing Africa in its true relative size different event · 80%
NPR
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 3% hedged 1 of 29 📰 publisher trust 60
“Article A describes the U.N. General Assembly's vote on the 'Correct the Map' resolution, while Article B explains the background and purpose of the campaign without mentioning the vote.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
6
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
17%
1 of 6 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
60/100
The Hindu's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
25
World
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-06 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Hindu · 907 article(s) · 2 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 2 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

Vasudevan Mukunth
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🔮 By backing the call, the AU has expressed hope that a fairer projection will restore geographical accuracy and correct what it characterises as centuries of symbolic marginalisation.
2026-09-06 · assertive framing · What’s the issue with the way Africa is shown on maps? | Explained
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Also by Vasudevan Mukunth
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Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 8 articles by Vasudevan Mukunth →

Topics

Flemish Greenland Mercator The African Union

Subjects

Flemish NORP · 1× Gerardus Mercator PERSON · 1× Greenland GPE · 1× The African Union ORG · 1×

Narrative

At the heart of this demand is the charge that the Mercator projection, still widely used in schools, media, and online platforms, systematically distorts the sizes of landmasses, shrinking Africa while inflating Europe, North America, and Greenland.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-06
🔮 By backing the call, the AU has expressed hope that a fairer projection will restore geographical accuracy and correct what it characterises as centuries of symbolic marginalisation.
2026-09-06 · The Hindu
What’s the issue with the way Africa is shown on maps? | Explained · assertive framing

Claims (6 extracted, 1 hedged)

The story so far: The African Union (AU) has endorsed the ‘Correct the Map’ campaign to replace the Mercator map projection with alternatives such as the Equal Earth map. asserted
Union → endorse → map
At the heart of this demand is the charge that the Mercator projection, still widely used in schools, media, and online platforms, systematically distorts the sizes of landmasses, shrinking Africa while inflating Europe, North America, and Greenland. asserted
projection → use → Europe
By backing the call, the AU has expressed hope that a fairer projection will restore geographical accuracy and correct what it characterises as centuries of symbolic marginalisation. asserted
it → back → marginalisation
The Mercator projection was designed in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, who was trying to solve a navigation problem. asserted
who → design → problem
When a ship follows a fixed compass direction, the path it traces – called the rhumb line – is a curve on most flat maps. asserted
it → follow → maps
This made it awkward for sailors to translate a bearing into a usable course they could plot on a chart. uncertain
they → make → chart
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