The world is watching, but what does it see…
When we look at a world map, Africa often appears modest in size, a vast but strangely shrunken landmass sitting quietly at the centre. Yet this image is a distortion, a legacy of the Mercator projection, a map design from the 1500s that stretched northern regions like Europe and North America while compressing the global south.
“It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not,”
-Selma Malika Haddadi
This cartographic illusion has shaped how the world perceives Africa and, in turn, how Africa perceives itself, a perception that subtly feeds ideas of Africa as “small,” “overcrowded,” and “resource-poor.” In truth, Africa is enormous. The continent could comfortably hold the United States, China, India, Japan, and much of Europe combined.
There is a campaign to use the Equal Earth Projection which shows the continent’s true size, in any presentation from geography textbooks to Maps, apps and any depictions of the world map. At Heritage & Flair, we believe that reimagining maps is more than geography, it’s about redrawing mindsets, restoring balance, and seeing Africa for what it truly is: vast, vital, and powerful.
You too can help correct the narrative and take a stand against the downplaying of Africa’s vast size and diversity. If everyone truly appreciated the continent’s immense scale, they would not so easily mistake it for being one country or assume that we all speak one language and all know each other.
It begins with you!