Stop Saying "Africa" (2) Mercador Maps and the True Size of Africa

    The earth as you know it is wrong. We have been lied to. In order to fit the globe, a three-dimensional sphere, onto a map, a two-dimensional rectangle, some intense finagling is required. To achieve this transformation mathematicians go through a process called projection. This process is not perfect though, in order to move from three dimensions to two, compromises have to be made. One must either compromise shape integrity or proportional size and as it stands the latter is most common. The Mercator Projection is the most common projection in use today, but it is also one of the worst projections all around. The Cartography community has disowned the Mercator Projection but it is still in modern use because of its familiarity.

    It was made in the 1500s by Gerardus Mercador as a map that would make sea fairing much easier. As sailing was the dominant mode of travel, the Mercator projection was a smash hit and became the ruling map of the world. It was not without its problems though. The projection had to distort the sizes of countries relative to their distance from the poles, this meant that the farther north you go on the map, the bigger the countries appear on the Mercador. In turn the closer you get to the equator, the smaller the countries appear.

    Humans subconsciously equate size with importance so a distortion in the size of nations leads to a distortion in their perceived importance. Many other racist ideas can be propelled by this distortion such as the myth of pan-Africanism, stating that "African's" are one people, which leads to the misconception that Africans sold other Africans into slavery. Those lies are much easier to believe when the entire continent of Africa is portrayed as not too much bigger than other countries. In actuality, Africa is an absolutely massive continent. No one disagrees with the fact that France and Germany are two very different countries with very different cultures, and that goes for all European countries. The continent of Africa is three times larger than the entire continent of Europe, so it follows that it has that many more different and diverse cultures. To make any generalizations of an entire continent's worth of people is idiotic and blatantly racist. African-Americans are also affected by the racism perpetuated by the Mercator Projection. Slavery erased their cultural background of African-Americans so they no longer have any nation or history in Africa to be proud of. They have to look to the whole continent as their long-lost home, and to have it literally minimized helps to perpetuate racist ideas that Africa and African's are weak and unimportant.

    So what can YOU do? First and foremost, stop using rectangular map projections. The best replacement for an incorrect map is a globe, which will always be correct but there will always be a need for flat maps so opt instead for equal-area maps in your classroom such as the Equal Earth, Eckhart IV, and the Molleweid projection. Advocate for the removal of Mercador Projections as the only place the Mercador should ever be present is on boats, not classrooms, diagrams, or infographics. Its misleading nature warps the minds of students and damages their image of the world. While racism didn't create the Mercador, racism and imperialism have allowed it to stick around. We must take an active role in righting its wrongs and doing justice for our students.

    Another thing we can do is to begin changing our language. Continental African's are not one people, continental Africa is not one place, continental Africa can never be one thing. Western media loves to refer to the continent of Africa as if it were a country, minimizing its size, scope, and importance. Once one sees these African generalizations it is impossible to unsee and they will begin to see them everywhere. The best way to combat this is to be skeptical of, and stop using the word "Africa" altogether. Any time you find yourself using "Africa" opt for a specific country or region Africa or "The Continent of Africa". This honors the fact that Africa is in fact a continent and is too big to be generalized. Any time you find yourself referring to someone or yourself as "African" opt for the specific country they or you are from, or if need be use "Continentally African" or whichever region of Africa one hails from. We must stop using Africa in place of specific African countries. Ethiopians are to Nigerians what Russians are to Indians, yes they share a continent but you would be remiss to generalize their individual cultures as "Asian". The only time "Africa" should be referred to as a whole is in comparison with other continents, which you will realize is an extremely rare occurrence because news outlets understand just how reductive it is to generalize the problems from one or a few countries to the entire continent they reside on, but because of White supremacy, this courtesy is not lent to African Countries.

    The closest one should get to generalizing a continent is talking about regional differences such as North, South, East, West, and Central Africa. The best option when referring to a country in Africa is to say the name of the African country. It seems straightforward because it is. White supremacy has taught a generation of African-Americans to consider themselves African which gives them no real identity to latch on to other than the racist narratives that the entire continent of Africa is poor and savage. Many immigrants from African Countries will refer to themselves as "African" in place of their National or Ethnic identity because that is what they've been conditioned to do. Instead what you can do is follow up by asking which country specifically they come from. If you are Continentally African you can choose instead to proudly say the country you are from. A caveat to this is that African-American's are unique in their identity as their history necessitates that they generalize Africa because there is no direct ethnic lineage to fall back on. But even this is a generalization because all slave descendent African-Americans are west African. It is time we take an active role in decolonizing our maps, our language, and our understanding of the world.

    

- - -

Which method will you incorporate first and how will you incorporate ___(the method)___ into your curriculum? (write it out right now)

What are the first steps in your plan? (take action)

Teachable Content:

Why Most World Maps Are Wrong (5 min) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfXKgIG_Lr0&t=3s

Stop Saying that Africa is a country (5 min) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxcUsyG1MCQ

The danger of a single story (20 min) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg

Resources:

Equal Earth Map Printout - https://equal-earth.com/