{"id":44687,"date":"2026-09-05T08:59:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=44687"},"modified":"2026-09-05T08:59:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:59:02","slug":"un-backs-african-led-resolution-to-fix-world-map-projections","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/un-backs-african-led-resolution-to-fix-world-map-projections\/","title":{"rendered":"UN backs African-led resolution to fix world map projections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The United Nations (UN) General Assembly has overwhelmingly passed an African-led resolution calling for a fundamental shift in how world maps represent the continent, seeking to replace centuries of cartographic distortion that shrinks Africa&#8217;s true geographic size.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;Correct the Map&#8221; initiative was adopted by 164 votes to one, with six abstentions. As SABC UN correspondent Sherwin Bryce-Pease reports, the text targets the widely used Mercator projection,a 16th-century navigational tool that significantly exaggerates northern landmasses while visually minimising the African continent, which is actually three times larger than North America.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While the resolution does not ban the Mercator map, it encourages global adoption of equal-area projections that reflect accurate territorial proportions. The United States stood completely isolated as the sole nation voting against the measure, dismissing the effort as a &#8220;radical ideological project&#8221; linked to reparations and &#8220;cognitive justice&#8221;, a stance firmly rejected by the vast majority of member states.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":44688,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-44687","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"UN backs call to correct world maps","published_date":"2026-09-05 08:21:49","news_description":"UN backs call to correct world maps","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44687","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\/44687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44689,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44687\/revisions\/44689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=44687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}