内容摘要：By October, shipments rebounded to about 135 tonnes, before again going into decline during 2023.

By October, shipments rebounded to about 135 tonnes, before again going into decline during 2023.

Ogundairo believes the commonly used Mercator map affects Africa and Africans negatively, and that its widespread use for centuries is connected to the many decades ofthe continent endured. Now, she said, some 70 years after independence from colonial masters, is the time to press for change.

“We live in a world where size is often equated with power,” Ogundairo said, adding that the Mercator map feeds tropes that Africa is a country.“It has a damaging impact on the way we make decisions in our everyday lives, on how we make business decisions, the way we dream, and even the way non-Africans view the continent as a tourist destination and an investment destination. It’s the most lingering lie about Africa,” she said.A heated, centuries-long debate resurfaces

Cartographers as far back as the early 20th century knew the Mercator projection was problematic.Developed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1599, the projection was one of the first ever to represent arched, imaginary sailing courses as visible, straight lines. Its simplicity for sea navigation cemented its popularity at the time, but its huge errors soon became hard to ignore.

“It preserves shapes and angles, and that’s good for navigation, but it’s terrible for scale,” geography professor Lindsay Frederick Braun of the University of Oregon said of the Mercator map. The map is most suitable for local area mapping and is used by digital platforms like Google Maps.

When enlarged into a world map, though, Mercator becomes problematic, Braun said. The map’s mistakes were not likely to be a conspiracy against Africa or the Global South, but its continued use, he added, is inherently political.The rhythm of the everyday

Here, we see how people moved, worked, gathered and celebrated. Carts on dusty roads, bread baking in clay ovens, weddings, markets and moments of rest.In kitchens and courtyards, daily rituals - grinding beans, sieving wheat and baking bread - played out with grace.

Social life and eventsFrom weddings and blessings to public festivals and pilgrimages, communal life pulsed with joy and meaning, be it sharing lunch or walking in a bridal procession.