The African Union has thrown its weight behind a campaign to adopt a world map that more accurately reflects the continent’s relative size than the one currently adorning most geography-class walls.

The so-called Mercator projection, in use since the 16th century, makes Africa look comparatively small as it inflates the size of land masses further away from the equator. As a result, the continent appears to be roughly as big as Greenland, though it’s about 14 times as large.

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The AU is supporting the Correct the Map campaign, spearheaded by advocacy groups Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa, to promote the so-called 2018 Equal Earth projection. The groups have urged the World Bank and United Nations to officially adopt the Equal Earth map, a more accurate representation of land-mass areas.

Even so, it is impossible to perfectly represent a sphere on a flat surface and although the alternate map may provide a better indicator of the size of the seven continents, it still distorts their shapes.

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Maps aren’t just symbolic, according to Oxford Analytics. While a more accurate world map wouldn’t deliver any immediate political or economic gains, it would influence how Africa is perceived as a market, it said.  

“The distorted representation of Africa’s size could lead to an underestimation of the continent’s vast economic potential,” Jervin Naidoo, a political analyst at Oxford Analytics, wrote in a note. “By accurately depicting Africa’s true scale, the campaign aims to reshape global perceptions, encouraging more informed investment decisions.”