Best Projection for Sub-Saharan Africa?

[AmandaBerman]

I know projections can be specific to countries and even sub-national regions. However, I work all over sub-Saharan Africa and instead of always using WGS84 geographic system, I know it is better to use a projected system. Is there a general "best overall" one to use for this area of the world? There are so many to choose from. It seems like equal area would be best.

[ChrisSmith7]

Amanda,

You could try the sinusoidal projection, aka the Sanson–Flamsteed or the Mercator equal-area projection. This would work well for Africa.

Sinusoidal projection - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You may also find it helpful to learn more about coordinate systems, projections, and datums - these can be tricky to understand and are often dry topics, unless you find them interesting! But, it helps nevertheless to understand them:

What are map projections?—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

http://web.gps.caltech.edu/gislab/HowTo/ESRI%20-%20Map%20Projections.pdf