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 ...

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

For generations, schools, media outlets and decision-makers have relied on a familiar world map. It has become a global standard, seen everywhere from classroom posters to government buildings. But ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

The Mercator projection, a centuries-old map style from the age of sail, still prevails in the internet age. Here’s what the African Union wants to use instead ...