The United States stood alone at the United Nations last week when 164 countries voted to support an African-led campaign challenging how the continent is represented on maps.
The U.N. General Assembly adopted the “Correct the Map” resolution by a vote of 164-1 on Sept. 4, with six countries abstaining, reports NPR. The U.S. was the only nation to vote against the measure, which encourages governments, schools, international organizations, and tech companies to use map projections that more accurately depict the size of Africa and other regions. Togo introduced the resolution on behalf of the African group, and the African Union
backed it, according to the United Nations.At the center of the campaign is the Mercator projection, a 16th-century map design created primarily for navigation. While useful for maritime purposes, the projection dramatically enlarges landmasses closer to the poles while making regions near the equator appear comparatively smaller. According to Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey, that distortion has consequences for how people visually understand Africa. The continent is more than 30 million square kilometers and is roughly 14 times larger than Greenland, yet the two can appear relatively similar in size on a Mercator map. The proposed Equal Earth projection preserves the relative size of continents more accurately.
“Maps shape our understanding of the world. They guide education, nourish the imagination, and influence collective perceptions,” argued Dussey. “It’s time for us in Africa to take responsibility to change what we can change ourselves.”
The Trump administration opposed the resolution, accusing the U.N. of pushing an “ideological agenda.” Yaryna Ferencevych, the deputy U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, said the measure undermines the institution’s credibility.
“Resolutions like this and the ideological
agenda they promote are barnacles on our work here, and the reason this institution is losing its credibility,” said Ferencevych in a statement. “When the United Nations questions why it is losing legitimacy in the world, and is not taken seriously, time and again, we point to resolutions such as this.”The vote does not prohibit the Mercator projection or require countries to adopt Equal Earth. Instead, it encourages broader use of projections that depict the continents more accurately. Moky Makura, the executive director of Africa No Filter, said the next phase is getting more accurate maps into everyday use
.“We want to see accurate maps in schools, textbooks, newsrooms, businesses and on the digital platforms billions of people use every day,” Makura said, reports Al Jazeera.