By Spy Uganda
The United Nations General Assembly has backed a major change in the way the world is represented on maps, supporting a shift away from the centuries-old Mercator projection in favour of maps that more accurately reflect the true size of Africa and other continents.
The resolution, spearheaded by Togo and supported by the African Union, was overwhelmingly approved on Friday, September 4, with 164 countries voting in favour, six abstaining and only the United States voting against.
The initiative promotes the use of the Equal Earth projection, a map design developed in 2018 that preserves the relative surface areas of continents more accurately than the widely used Mercator projection.
The vote represents a significant victory for Togo’s #CorrectTheMap campaign, which has argued that the way the world has traditionally been drawn has made Africa appear much smaller than it actually is.
For centuries, the Mercator map has been one of the most familiar images of the world in classrooms, atlases and digital mapping systems. Created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569, the projection was originally designed primarily to assist sailors with navigation.
But while Mercator is useful for navigation, it does not accurately represent the relative size of land masses. Areas close to the poles are dramatically enlarged, while regions around the equator appear disproportionately smaller.
The result is a striking visual distortion of Africa.
On a traditional Mercator map, Greenland can appear roughly comparable in size to Africa, even though Africa is actually about 14 times larger than the Danish territory.
The Equal Earth projection attempts to correct this imbalance by showing continents according to their actual relative surface areas.
The campaign behind the resolution was led by Togo on behalf of African countries and received the backing of the African Union.
Togo’s Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Dussey argued before the vote that the issue was not about politics but about scientific accuracy.
“This discussion is not a political discussion [but] a scientific discussion,” Dussey said, insisting that the world should accept what geographical science shows.
He also called for Africa to take greater responsibility for changing how the continent is represented internationally.
“It is time for us in Africa to take responsibility to change what we can change ourselves,” he said.
Togo’s government has described the move as more than a cartographic adjustment, arguing that maps influence how people understand the world from an early age and can shape educational, cultural and geopolitical perceptions.
The country’s official government described the UN decision as a victory for Africa and said the initiative is intended to promote a fairer representation of the world’s continents.
Despite headlines suggesting that the United Nations has completely abolished the Mercator map, the resolution is not legally binding.
It does not prohibit governments, schools, companies or individuals from continuing to use Mercator. Instead, it encourages UN member states, international organisations and technology companies to adopt the Equal Earth projection and other equal-area maps where accurately showing the size of continents is important.
The resolution could nevertheless have a significant influence on school textbooks, educational materials, printed maps, digital platforms and other technologies that display the world.
Togo has indicated that it intends to work with organisations including the African Union and UNESCO, as well as technology and mapping companies, on implementation.
Critics of the Mercator projection have argued for decades that its distortion goes beyond geography.
Because Africa sits largely around the equator, the continent is visually reduced on the traditional map, while Europe, North America and other high-latitude regions appear much larger.
Supporters of the Correct the Map campaign say this has contributed to a distorted perception of Africa’s geographical scale and importance.
The campaign has therefore become part of a broader conversation about how Africa is represented in global education, media and international institutions.
Geographers stress, however, that no flat map can perfectly represent a spherical Earth. Different projections are designed for different purposes, with compromises involving area, shape, distance or direction.
The Equal Earth projection is specifically designed to preserve relative area, making it particularly useful when the objective is to understand how large continents actually are.
The difference becomes especially clear when Africa is compared with other parts of the world.
Africa is so large that countries including the United States, China, India, Japan and several European countries could fit within its boundaries.
The Mercator projection does not make Africa physically smaller, of course. Instead, its mathematical method of transferring the Earth’s curved surface onto a flat map creates the visual distortion.
The UN-backed move is therefore intended to ensure that when people look at a world map, the relative size of continents is closer to geographical reality.
The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution.
Washington criticised the initiative, describing it as an ideological project and arguing that the UN should focus its attention on more pressing international challenges.
Six countries — Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine — abstained.
France, meanwhile, supported the initiative, with Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot saying France would move away from Mercator in favour of other projections that more accurately represent land areas.
The UN decision does not mean that every map in the world will suddenly change.
Mercator will likely remain useful in areas where its navigational properties are valuable. But the resolution could accelerate the use of more accurate equal-area maps in classrooms, textbooks, newsrooms, digital platforms and public institutions.
For African campaigners, however, the significance goes beyond cartography.
The argument is that Africa should not only be accurately represented geographically but also seen according to its true scale and importance.
As the Correct the Map campaign gains international backing, a map that has shaped generations of people’s understanding of the world could gradually give way to one that presents Africa much closer to its actual size.
For Togo and its African partners, the message is simple: the continent was never as small as the map made it look.
