UN Votes to Correct World Maps That Downplay Africa’s Size, With Only U.S. Opposing
The United Nations General Assembly has taken a rare stand on cartography, approving a resolution that urges the use of world maps more accurately reflecting Africa’s true size. Backers see it as a belated correction of a distortion embedded in global education and culture for centuries.
Togo’s “Correct the Map” resolution, backed by African Union members, passed with 164 votes in favor, a comfortable majority that included France and the United Kingdom. The United States was the only country to vote no, with six nations abstaining. While the measure is non-binding, it effectively encourages international institutions and UN member states to adopt map standards that fairly represent landmass proportions.
The long-running debate centers on the Mercator projection, a 16th-century map created by Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator for European navigation. Mercator’s system is praised for preserving direction and shape, but it does so at a severe cost: it exaggerates the size of landmasses near the poles. Greenland, for example, appears roughly equal to Africa in many versions of the world map, although Africa is 14 times larger.
For years, activists and development organizations have argued that this distortion has real-world consequences. When countries near the Equator are visually diminished, they say, perceptions of their economic potential, cultural output, and strategic importance are also minimized. The vote acknowledges that maps are not neutral documents but powerful tools that shape political and public perception.
Efforts to produce more honest maps are not new. In 2018, cartographers unveiled the Equal Earth projection, an alternative that preserves the correct proportions of continents while looking visually similar to familiar world maps. The African Union adopted it in February, saying it “more accurately represents the sizes of all continents, particularly Africa.”
Campaigners, including the Africa No Filter collective, have turned the issue into an online movement under the hashtag #CorrectTheMap. They point out that Africa has enough space to contain the United States, China, India, Japan, Mexico, and much of Europe—and still have land to spare. For them, the map debate is part of a larger pushback against what they call “the world’s longest misinformation and disinformation” about the continent.
Supporters of the resolution came from different regions. Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told Reuters: “A fair world begins with a fair map.” Earlier, he said at a UN briefing: “A map is never neutral. It shapes perceptions, influences how the place of peoples and continents in the world is understood.” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot also backed the move and announced that his ministry would stop using the Mercator projection. “Changing the map obviously does not change the world,” he said. “But correcting a representation that distorts it is already an act of truth.”
Washington, however, cast the exercise as a distraction from the UN’s core work. Yaryna Ferencevych, a U.S. representative at the UN, said the resolution “mocked the work and purpose of the UN General Assembly.” She added: “Instead of focusing on genuine problems of international peace, prosperity, or good relations, this body is debating map projects from the 16th century, and their role in promoting reparations and ‘cognitive justice.’” In March, Washington also criticized a UN resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade “the gravest crime against humanity.”
The symbolic weight of the vote should not be underestimated, analysts say. By endorsing map reform at the highest international level, the UN has created a reference point for civil society, educators, and media outlets that favor accuracy over convention. The resolution does not force any country or institution to abandon the Mercator map. But it strengthens the hand of those who say twenty-first-century maps should finally show Africa in its true dimensions.