Togo will ask United Nations member states to adopt \u200ca world map that more accurately reflects the true size of Africa and ditch the 16th-century Mercator projection, its foreign minister said.<\/p>\n
Critics say the Mercator projection, which makes Greenland appear as big as Africa when in reality \u200bthe continent is about 14 times larger, reinforces perceptions of Africa’s marginality despite its vast \u200bsize and population, shaping narratives in media, education and policy.<\/p>\n
The African Union has \u2060tasked Togo with promoting a\u00a0‘Correct The Map’ campaign\u00a0to end the use of the Mercator \u200bmap by governments and international organisations.<\/p>\n
The campaign, led by advocacy groups Africa No Filter and Speak Up \u200bAfrica, calls for adoption of the 2018 Equal Earth projection, which tries to reflect countries’ true sizes.<\/p>\n
Created by cartographer Gerardus Mercator for navigation, the\u00a0Mercator projection\u00a0distorts continent sizes, enlarging areas near the poles like North America and \u200bGreenland while shrinking Africa and South America.<\/p>\n
“The size we see of the African continent on the \u200bglobe… is geographically inaccurate,” Togo Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said in an interview with Reuters on Monday, calling for “scientific \u200ctruth.”<\/p>\n
The \u2060Mercator projection is still widely used, including by schools and tech companies worldwide.<\/p>\n
“Accurate representation is not just about maps – it is about agency, progress, and ensuring the world sees Africa as it truly is,” said Moky Makura, executive director of Africa No Filter.<\/p>\n
U.N. DRAFT RESOLUTION BEING PREPARED<\/strong><\/p>\n Earlier this year, \u200bthe AU adopted a resolution \u200bpromoting the Equal \u2060Earth projection and encouraging its 55 member states to move away from the Mercator projection.<\/p>\n “The institutional challenge is to have a resolution passed by the United \u200bNations General Assembly to validate this map,” Dussey said. “It goes without saying \u200bthat African \u2060countries are already receptive to this initiative.”<\/p>\n Dussey said a draft resolution is being prepared, with a vote likely at the next UNGA in September. How countries vote would reveal their “true colours”, he said.<\/p>\n The U.N.\u00a0adopted \u2060last month\u00a0\u200ban Africa-led resolution recognising slavery as the “gravest crime against humanity” \u200band calling for\u00a0reparations. All EU countries and Britain abstained, while the United States, Israel and Argentina voted against it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Togo will ask United Nations member states to adopt \u200ca world map that more accurately reflects the true size of Africa and ditch the 16th-century Mercator projection, its foreign minister said. Critics say the Mercator projection, which makes Greenland appear as big as Africa when in reality \u200bthe continent is about 14 times larger, reinforces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":15,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,33,34,27],"tags":[5032,5031,1083],"class_list":["post-20505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-politics","category-society","category-west-africa","tag-correct-the-map","tag-mercator-projection","tag-togo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20507,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20505\/revisions\/20507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}