内容摘要：The World Bank, too, has picked it up. The institution, since 2013, has experimented with different projections, including the Robinson map, but in 2024 settled on the Equal Earth map.

The World Bank, too, has picked it up. The institution, since 2013, has experimented with different projections, including the Robinson map, but in 2024 settled on the Equal Earth map.

Since early May, Ogundairo, as lead campaigner at Africa No Filter, a nonprofit working to change negative perceptions of Africa, has hassled big institutions like the United Nations with a “Correct the World” campaign. People are encouraged to sign an online petition to pressure their governments into compliance. Most people, Ogundairo said, don’t know about the distortions and react with surprise and outrage.“We’ve had a lot of, ‘Oh my God, I didn’t even know this was happening,’” Ogundairo told Al Jazeera. “I have an uncle who decided to support this because I told him you can fit the US, China, and India into Africa, and he felt so betrayed. He was like ‘Oh my God, I had no idea.’”

Institutions have been harder to crack, Ogundairo said, but she expected some resistance to this sensitive, controversial topic.For centuries, experts have debated the question: Can anyone accurately depict a three-dimensional, spherical world on a flat surface? Is it possible to take a rounded object, like a football, for example, cut it up, paste it on a board, and have a precise representation?Many experts conclude the answer is a resounding no. Maps, they say, are inherently a lie, always compromising on something: Area, distance, or something else. Others, though, argue that near-perfect maps exist and must be highlighted.

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.Central to Angel’s gold-for-dirty money operations is Henrietta Rushwaya, president of the Zimbabwe Miners Association. Rushwaya, who is also President Mnangagwa’s niece, told Angel and the reporters on a phone call that smuggling 100kg of gold each week would be no problem.

The scheme would need an initial investment of $10mn of dirty cash into the government’s gold refinery, Fidelity. Of that, $5mn would be held in reserve by Fidelity for the duration of the scam, with the rest being used every week to buy gold.Once the gold is bought, another $5mn would be brought in to buy more gold until all the money had been laundered into the precious metal — which would then be sold internationally for legitimate, clean cash.

Do you have information on money laundering or want to share another tip? Contact Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit on +974 5080 0207 (WhatsApp/Signal), or find other ways to reach out on our“They can buy the gold directly in cash, because we are the only sector in the country that is paying in foreign exchange on a cash basis,” Rushwaya said during the call.