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Togo to Ask UN Member States to Use Map Showing Africa's True Size
The campaign backs the Equal Earth projection, which critics say shows Africa’s size more accurately than the Mercator map.
- Togo Foreign Minister Robert Dussey is urging the United Nations to adopt a world map accurately reflecting Africa's size, abandoning the 16th-century Mercator projection that distorts continental proportions.
- Critics argue the Mercator map, created by Gerardus Mercator, distorts geography by enlarging regions like Greenland while shrinking Africa, which is actually about 14 times larger than Greenland.
- The African Union tasked Togo with leading the "Correct The Map" campaign, promoting the 2018 Equal Earth projection to address historical distortions of the continent's identity.
- A draft resolution is being prepared for a United Nations General Assembly vote in September, with Dussey noting that voting results will reveal countries' "true colours."
- Advocacy groups like Africa No Filter emphasize that accurate representation is essential for agency and progress, as the Global South addresses historical imbalances in international policy.
11 Articles
11 Articles
Togo to ask UN members to adopt world maps that show true size of Africa
Togo has launched a campaign to adopt a world map that better represents the true size of Africa. Now Togo will ask UN member states to commit to ditching European centred maps in favour of more accurate representations.
Togo will ask the members of the United Nations (UN) to change the maps of the world and adopt one that more faithfully represents the size of the continents, and in particular Africa. A project in the cartons for the next General Assembly in September 2026.
If you look at a common world map, you get the impression that Greenland and Africa are equally large parts of the world. But the opposite is the case. Now Togo says: It needs new map material.
Lomé wants to abandon the Mercator projection, which represents Africa too small in relation to reality, according to its critics. A vote at the UN General Assembly is probably expected in September.
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- 38% of the sources lean Left, 37% of the sources are Center
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