This site must begin by putting its subject in the right perspective. Most people know that Africa is a very large landmass, but are not aware that the continent’s true size has been vastly underestimated. This is because most “Western maps” use the Mercator projection, which makes Africa, like other landmasses near the Equator, appear very small, whereas landmasses near the poles are inflated in size. In the illustration below, the inflated sizes of countries is depicted in light blue, while their true sizes is depicted in dark blue.

[1] “Drawn in 1569 by the Flemish cartographer, Geert de Kremer (also known as Gerardus Mercator), the map became popular because Mercator decided on drawing a planisphere, which represented the meridians and parallels as straight lines that cross at right angles, and thus preserved local angular relationships, thereby helping sailors to navigate the world’s oceans.” Cited in: Ankomah, B. (ed). (2020). The Africa Factbook: Busting the Myths. Institute of African Knowledge (INSTAK). Published by the Book of African Records (BAR) in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC). Printed in South Africa

[1] Ankomah, B. (ed). (2020). The Africa Factbook: Busting the Myths. Institute of African Knowledge (INSTAK). Published by the Book of African Records (BAR) in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC). Printed in South Africa

[1] Ibid
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/map-true-size-of-africa/#:~:text=The%20African%20continent%20has%20a,and%20many%20European%20nations%2C%20combined

Although it was originally created for 16th-century sea captains, “the Mercator map has become the de facto standard for world mapping…used from geography textbooks to Google Maps, and it is the only way most people recognise the position and size of the Earth’s countries and continents.” However, the Mercator map “distorts the relative size of the continents, to the advantage of the West, to which it gives undue prominence by pumping up the sizes of Europe and North America.”

For instance, the world’s largest island, Greenland, is projected as being the same size as Africa, but in reality, Africa is 14 times larger. Russia and Canada also appear to comprise about 25% of the Earth’s landmass, but they in fact, occupy a mere 5%. While Africa’s size is shrunk on the Mercator map, Canada appears a lot bigger than Africa, but in fact, three Canadas would comfortably fit inside Africa. Russia’s size is also exaggerated, and it appears bigger than Africa, while in reality, Africa is almost twice the size of Russia.
As shown on the previous page, Africa is in fact very big, measuring 30.37 million square km (or 11.73 million square miles), which is bigger than the United States, Canada and China put together. The great misrepresentation of this geographic reality has led to the false Eurocentric world we see today, “with great implications for global politics and economics, and negative consequences for regions like Africa.”
Africa’s Natural Resource Wealth
In addition to being the largest landmass, Africa is undisputedly the richest continent in the world. According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Africa holds about 8 per cent of the world’s natural gas, 12 per cent of the world’s oil reserves, and 30 per cent of the world’s mineral reserves – including the world’s largest reserves of diamonds, cobalt, uranium and platinum. Furthermore, Africa holds 40 per cent of the world’s gold deposits and up to 90 per cent of its platinum and chromium. Last, but not least, the continent holds 10 per cent of internal renewable fresh water sources and 65 per cent of the world’s arable land. Pursuant to the above, countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are endowed with huge reserves of various critical and precious minerals, not to mention other natural resources, such as oil and timber.
If the presence of vast quantities of extractives in Africa has become a curse, it is because the devil’s agents continue to exploit pre-existing flaws, including; violating property rights, undermining peoples’ sovereignty, failing to protect the environment, and operating economic and business affairs in an opaque and inequitable manner. As a result, Africa’s minerals are mostly exported as ores, concentrates or metals, without significant value-addition being undertaken, thereby reducing the continent’s “global trading position to one of a price taker, subject to the vagaries of global commodity markets.”

Figure 1: The most abundant resource for each African country per tonne of production

Pursuant to the above, the African Union’s African Mining Vision (AMV) calls for the “transparent, equitable and optimal exploitation of mineral resources to underpin broad-based sustainable growth and socio-economic development.” Deliberate and sustainable actions from key stakeholders, particularly governments, is necessary, in order to achieve the AMV. These actions include: promoting value addition or local beneficiation of minerals to provide feedstock for the manufacturing sector; and creating an industrial base through forward and backward linkages.

Ibid
Ankomah, B. (ed). (2020).
Ibid
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Our Work in Africa –

Ambani, J.O. (2018). FROM ‘RESOURCE CURSE’ TO ‘MIS-RULE PENALTY’? AN INTRODUCTION. In Ambani, J.O (ed) Drilling Past the Resource Curse? Essays on the governance of extractives in Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya: Strathmore University Press. p.3
African Union. (2021). The African Mining Vision: Transparent, equitable and optimal exploitation of Africa’s mineral resources. September 01, 2021 –

Ibid