The United Nations General Assembly will vote on Friday, September 4, on a resolution calling for the world to phase out the traditional "Mercurator" map of the world, in favor of a map that more accurately reflects the size of Africa.
Robert Dussey, the foreign minister of Togo, said that the decision was sponsored by Togo and supported by the member states of the African Union, noting that this discussion is scientific and not political, because scientific evidence proves the need to change the current reality.
Although UN resolutions are not binding, passing the resolution could lead to the modernization of school curricula and everyday technologies, given the widespread use of the Mercator projection in education, technology, and governance.
This map was presented by the Flemish cartographer (present-day Belgium) Gerardus Mercator in 1569 to help sailors navigate, and it remains the global standard almost five centuries later.
However, due to the projection method, areas near the equator appear much smaller than they actually are, while areas at higher latitudes appear much larger. For example, the map shows Africa as being similar in size to Greenland, even though the African continent is 14 times larger than the Danish territory.
A Change.org petition for the #CorrectTheMap campaign, which has garnered over 11,000 signatures, states: "You could put the United States, China, India, Japan, Mexico, and most of Europe in Africa and still have room to spare."
Historians and geographers have for years seen the Mercator projection as rooted in Western stereotypes, and some activists have termed it “cartographic colonialism,” arguing that the map has subtly shaped international power dynamics by minimizing the physical presence of the Global South and visually magnifying the Northern Hemisphere, thus reinforcing systemic biases in international trade, development priorities, and educational frameworks.
One of the most prominent critics of the Mercator projection was the German historian Arno Peters, who launched the world map known by his name in 1973, which was often used as an alternative to the Mercator map.
Togo's #CorrectTheMap campaign promotes the use of the more accurate 2018 "Equal Earth" map design, developed by an international team of cartographers, which its supporters say will help correct perceptions of Africa and end colonialism in global curricula.
Some analysts agree. J.J. Enoch, senior analyst at the London-based geopolitical consultancy JS Held, said the Mercator projection visually underestimates Africa's true size and linked the campaign to African states' desire for "greater influence in global institutions and greater control over how the continent is represented." He added that adopting a map of equal size would provide a more accurate basis for education and public understanding, suggesting that Africa's demographic, economic, and geopolitical significance no longer needs to be viewed through the lens of inherited and distorted conventions.
Togolese authorities hope the vote will proceed in the same way as another African Union-backed resolution at the United Nations this year, when a Ghana-sponsored resolution was passed in March describing the slave trade as "the most heinous crime against humanity," with 123 countries voting in favor, three against, and 52 abstaining.
The Togolese government is planning an event in the capital, Lomé, with UNESCO, the African Union, and technology brands such as Google Maps during the first quarter of next year to map out the implementation of the resolution.
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