Togo will ask United Nations (UN) 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
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Critics say the Mercator projection, which makes Greenland appear as big as Africa when in reality the continent is about 14 times larger, reinforces perceptions of Africa’s marginality despite its vast size and population, shaping narratives in media, education and policy.<\/p>\n
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The African Union (AU) has \u2060tasked Togo with promoting a ‘Correct The Map’ campaign to end the use of the Mercator map by governments and international organisations.<\/p>\n
The campaign, led by advocacy groups Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa, calls for adoption of the 2018 Equal Earth projection, which tries to reflect countries’ true sizes.<\/p>\n
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Created by cartographer Gerardus Mercator for navigation, the Mercator projection distorts continent sizes, enlarging areas near the poles like North America and Greenland while shrinking Africa and South America.<\/p>\n
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“The size we see of the African continent on the globe is geographically inaccurate,” Togo Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said in an interview with Reuters<\/em> on Monday, calling for “scientific \u200ctruth.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The \u2060Mercator projection is still widely used, including by schools and tech companies worldwide.<\/p>\n <\/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 <\/p>\n UN DRAFT RESOLUTION BEING PREPARED<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Earlier this year, the AU adopted a resolution promoting the Equal \u2060Earth projection and encouraging its 55 member states to move away from the Mercator projection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “The institutional challenge is to have a resolution passed by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to validate this map,” Dussey said. “It goes without saying that African \u2060countries are already receptive to this initiative.”<\/p>\n <\/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 <\/p>\n The UN adopted \u2060last month an Africa-led resolution recognising slavery as the “gravest crime against humanity” and calling for reparations. All European Union countries and Britain abstained, while the United States, Israel and Argentina voted against it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n –Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":31877,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-31876","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Togo will ask UN member states to adopt \u200ca world map that more accurately reflects the true size of Africa","published_date":"2026-04-14 19:42:32","news_description":"Togo will ask UN member states to adopt \u200ca world map that more accurately reflects the true size of Africa","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31878,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31876\/revisions\/31878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=31876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}