The topic of social developments on the African continent is likely to gain in importance for students in Germany in the process of globalization. At the same time, as international studies show, there is still a great significance of the textbook as a medium for learning in schools. This study examines the discourse on the spatial representation of sub‐Saharan Africa in recent geography textbooks. The study is placed in the field of interdisciplinary discourse analysis and is connected to didactics of geography. Here, the need for new research was widely articulated in recent times. The design of the study combines different micro‐approaches of text‐ and picture analysis. These are interconnected with the state‐of‐the‐art competences of geographical didactics that are aligned to discourse theory. With regards to content, the findings of this study reflect, on the one hand, historically developed narratives of Africa that degrade the continent and reproduce predominant power relations. On the other hand, the author’s attempts for differentiation, a change of perspectives and spatial sensibility can be found.