The map of the world as you know it – the Mercator projection – isn’t totally accurate. And Africa is leading the charge to get rid of it for good. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Last week, the African Union, a continental union of 55 member states, reportedly endorsed a campaign to have organizations around the world replace the Mercator map with an alternative map that more accurately reflects the size of Africa. The effort is also being championed by the Caribbean Community, an intergovernmental group of 15 member states.

The Mercator projection was created by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator back in 1569. It's a cylindrical map projection, in which you place the globe into a cylinder and then project

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