The African Union (AU) wants people to stop using a map that shows Africa as being small. The map was created in 1569. In the 18th century, it became the international map for sailors. It is now the world's most widely used map. However, countries far from the Equator look larger than they are, while countries closer to the Equator look smaller. The AU wants a map that shows the correct size of Africa, and of other continents and countries.
The AU spoke to Reuters about the map. It said Africa is the world's second-largest continent, but the map did not show this. The non-profit organization Africa No Filter agreed. It said Mercator map was "misinformation…and it just simply has to stop". The group Speak Up Africa wants people to use the 2018 Equal Earth map. On this map "Africa appears 14 times larger than Greenland, as it actually is". This shows the correct size of countries.
Try the same news story at these levels:
Map of Africa - Level 0, Map of Africa - Level 2 or Map of Africa - Level 3
Sources- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/15/african-union-true-size-world-map-replace-mercator-version
- https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/15/africa/africa-real-size-world-map-campaign-intl
- https://correctthemap.org/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercator_projection
- https://equal-earth.com/
Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice activities, drag and drop activities, sentence jumbles, which word activities, text reconstructions, spelling, gap fills and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)