By Carlos Lopes and Selma Malika Haddadi Maps are never neutral. They are instruments of knowledge, yes, but also of power, ideology and often manipulation. Nowhere is this more evident than in the depiction of Africa. For centuries, the Mercator projection — still ubiquitous in classrooms, media and digital platforms — has misrepresented Africa’s true scale, making one of the world’s largest landmasses appear deceptively small.