Janneh Semega :
Gerardus Mercator (1512–1594), a Flemish cartographer, geographer, and mathematician, created the Mercator projection in 1569—more than 450 years ago. It was designed primarily for navigation, but the projection dramatically distorts the relative size of countries and continents, making regions near the equator appear much smaller than they actually are.
Africa is a powerful example. On the Mercator projection, Africa can appear disproportionately small compared with Europe, Greenland, and North America, even though Africa is vastly larger than many of these regions.
The issue goes beyond geography. Maps are not simply neutral pictures of the world; they can influence how people understand geography, importance, power, and their place in the world. During the era of European colonial expansion, European powers controlled much of the world’s mapping, education, trade, and political institutions. These systems contributed to narratives that portrayed Africa as dependent, backward, and incapable of developing without European intervention.
That does not mean Mercator personally created his map with the intention of making Africans feel inferior. But it is worth questioning how geographic representations, colonial education, political narratives, and economic systems collectively shaped perceptions of Africa and African people.
Africa is not a small continent waiting for someone else to develop it. It is enormous in land, population, natural resources, cultural diversity, and human potential. Understanding how the world has been represented—and who had the power to represent it—is part of understanding geopolitics itself.
2026-09-06 22:42:43