UN to vote on adopting new world map that shows Africa’s true scale

The UN general assembly will vote on Friday on a resolution for the world to formally phase out the traditional Mercator map of the globe in favour of one that more accurately displays Africa’s size.Robert Dussey, Togo’s foreign affairs minister, said the resolution was sponsored by Togo and backed by countries including the African Union’s 54 other member states. He did not specify the total number.The 1569 map by Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594) has remained the global standard. Photograph: Stock Montage/Getty Images“This discussion is not a political discussion [but] a scientific discussion, because there is scientific proof so we all have to accept the reality,” he said.UN resolutions are non-enforceable but if the vote passes, it could lead to an update of classroom curriculums and everyday technology, given the wide usage of the Mercator projection in education, technology and governance.The layout was introduced by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 to help sailors navigate the seas. Almost five centuries later it remains the global standard.Because of its projection style, however, regions near the equator appear significantly smaller than they are, whereas high-latitude areas look much larger. For example, the map shows Africa as being similar in size to Greenland, but the continent is 14 times larger than the Danish territory.“You could fit the United States, China, India, Japan, Mexico and much of Europe into Africa and still have land to spare,” says a petition on Change.org for the #CorrectTheMap campaign, which has more than 11,000 signatures. The African Union endorsed the campaign in August 2025 and then asked Togo to spearhead its adoption.Historians and geographers have said for years that the Mercator projection is rooted in western stereotypes. Activists have echoed this, with some coining the term “cartographic colonialism”.The 1973 Gall-Peters world map has been used as an alternative to the Mercator. Photograph: Michael Schmeling/AlamySome argue that the map has subtly shaped international power dynamics by minimising the physical presence of the global south and visually inflating northern hemisphere nations while shrinking equatorial regions. This, they say, has reinforced systemic biases in international trade, development priorities and educational frameworks.One of the Mercator projection’s most prominent critics was Arno Peters, a German historian, who launched the Peters world map based on the Gall–Peters projection in 1973. It has often been used as an alternative to the Mercator map.The 2018 Equal Earth Map. Photograph: equal-earth.comTogo’s #CorrectTheMap campaign is promoting the use of the more accurate 2018 Equal Earth design, which was developed by an international team of cartographers. Supporters say it will help to reverse perceptions of Africa and decolonise global curriculums.Some analysts agree too. JJ Enoch, a London-based senior associate at JS Held, a geopolitical risk advisory firm, said the Mercator projection visually diminished Africa’s true scale. He linked the campaign to a quest by African nations for “greater influence in global institutions and greater control over how the continent is represented”.He added: “Adopting an equal-area map … would provide a more accurate basis for education and public understanding, while signalling that Africa’s demographic, economic and geopolitical importance should no longer be viewed through inherited and distorted conventions.”A map of Africa from Mercator's atlas dating between 1595-1602. Photograph: Royal Geographical Society/Getty ImagesTogolese authorities hope the vote will go the same way as another African Union-backed decision at the UN this year. In March a Ghana-sponsored resolution to describe the slave trade as “gravest crime against humanity” passed, with 123 states voting in favour. Three states voted no and 52 abstained.Ghana’s success has given supporters of the map cause to believe in a favourable outcome. Togo’s government is planning an event in Lomé, the Togolese capital, with Unesco, the African Union and tech brands such as Google Maps during the first quarter of next year to map out the implementation of the resolution.Dussey said: “To those who say why now, I say, why not? When we look at the world map … it is time for us to change the narrative.”He added: “It’s time for us in Africa to take responsibility to change what we can change ourselves.”