The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted to encourage the adoption of a world map that more accurately portrays the true size of Africa and other continents, marking a significant milestone in global cartography and international equity.
The non-binding measure, officially designated as the “Correct the Map” resolution, was sponsored by the Republic of Togo with the staunch backing of member states of the African Union (AU).
At the plenary session, a total of 164 countries voted in favour of the resolution, including major global powers such as France and the United Kingdom. However, the United States stood as the lone dissenting voice, casting the sole vote against the resolution, while six other nations abstained.
Although the resolution carries no legal compulsion to force sovereign states or international organisations to discard traditional cartographic models, policy analysts expect it to heavily influence institutional map usage worldwide.
For centuries, the global standard has been dominated by the Mercator projection. Developed in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, the projection was originally engineered to preserve angles and navigational directions for European explorers rather than accurately depict landmass proportions. Because a flat map cannot perfectly capture a spherical Earth, the projection severely distorts regions: areas near the poles appear massively enlarged, while territories near the equator are heavily shrunk.
Consequently, traditional maps render Africa and Greenland looking remarkably similar in size, even though Africa spans approximately 30.4 million square kilometres—roughly 14 times larger than Greenland’s 2.2 million square kilometres.
Beyond geography, the #CorrectTheMap campaign and proponents of reform have argued that the visual distortion shapes geopolitical perceptions. Campaigners note that massive landmasses including the United States, China, India, Japan, Mexico, and large swathes of Europe can comfortably fit inside the African continent with room to spare.
Speaking ahead of the UN vote, Togo’s Foreign Minister, Robert Dussey, emphasised the philosophical weight of the change. “A fair world begins with a fair map,” Dussey told international news agency Reuters. Addressing a UN briefing, he added, “A map is never neutral. It shapes perceptions, influences how the place of peoples and continents in the world is understood.”
France emerged as a prominent Western backer of the initiative. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced that his ministry would immediately phase out the use of the Mercator projection. “Changing the map obviously doesn’t change the world. But correcting a representation that distorts it is already an act of truth,” Barrot stated.
In contrast, the United States strongly opposed the resolution. The US representative at the UN, Yaryna Ferencevych, rebuked the General Assembly for dedicating legislative time to cartography, arguing that the global body ought to concentrate on international peace, prosperity, and state relations. Dismissing the resolution as a distraction, Washington’s delegation also took issue with ideological frameworks surrounding the campaign, including references to reparations and “cognitive justice.”
This diplomatic friction underscores deeper fault lines at the UN regarding how historical and contemporary grievances between Africa and Western nations are managed. The opposition follows recent tension in March, when the US criticised a UN resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade “the gravest crime against humanity.”
In February, the 54 member states of the African Union formally adopted the Equal Earth projection—an equal-area map crafted in 2018 to preserve true continental scale. Advocates argue that shifting away from the Mercator model corrects a profound historical narrative flaw.
Lerato Mogoatlhe of Africa No Filter described the conventional layout as part of the “world’s longest misinformation and disinformation” campaign regarding the continent. Echoing similar sentiments, Kenyan geographer Kioko Muendo noted that map distortion directly affects how economic potential, population size, and resources are valued.
“Maps are more than just guides for travellers – they shape how regions are perceived politically and economically,” Muendo noted.
