CC0 Usage Conditions ApplyClick for more information. The Historic Maps of Africa collection includes 78 maps and dates from circa 1631 to 1973. Geographic content of individual maps varies from ...

The 1569 Mercator map did not merely misrepresent Africa’s size—it mutilated its dignity and incapacitated its destiny. From the moment Gerardus Mercator shrank Africa on paper, the continent was ...

In 1569, Flemish mapmaker Gerardus Mercator synthesized existing ideas in navigation and cartography to create a new type of world map. It has stood the test of time: Billions of people would ...

Do you know how big Africa really is? According to experts, most of us don’t, and it’s because the maps we grew up with weren’t telling the full story. Earlier this month, the African Union endorsed a ...

Explore how Africa’s colonial borders still shape politics, conflicts, and identities across the continent today.

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: The African Union has started an effort to oust the Mercator projection map and replace it with what it says is a more accurately drawn map. The 16 ...

The African Union has joined a campaign calling for the widely-used Mercator map, which makes Africa appear smaller than it is, to be replaced with a map that more accurately reflects the continent's ...

The African Union has endorsed the #CorrectTheMap Campaign, a call for the United Nations and the wider global community to use a different kind of world map. The campaign currently has over 4,500 ...

DAKAR, Senegal — On the Mercator projection, one of the world’s most popular maps, Greenland and Africa appear to be about the same size. But on the Equal Earth projection showing continents in their ...

A little-known element is shedding light on the transatlantic slave trade. Researchers have assembled a map of strontium, a naturally occurring element, across sub-Saharan Africa. These data can be ...