UN Backs Africa Map
The UN General Assembly adopted an Africa-led resolution calling for more accurate representations of the continent on world maps on Friday, with 164 countries voting in favour, six abstaining and the United States alone voting against.
“Resolutions like this one and the ideological agenda they promote are barnacles on our work here and the reason this institution is losing its credibility,” claimed Deputy US representative to the UN Economic and Social Council, Yaryna Ferencevich, ahead of the vote.
She also blamed the UN’s ‘losing legitimacy’ on ‘resolutions such as this’, and urged other countries to ‘fully reject’ the proposal.
The resolution nonetheless passed with 164 votes in favour, six abstentions and Washington alone voting against.
Africa Challenges Map Distortion
“The persistence of this cartographic distortion has led to over time profound consequences. It has notably contributed to symbolically minimising the size of Africa and several other regions, leading to an unbalanced view of world geography,” noted Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey after the vote.
The centuries-old Mercator projection distorts the relative size of landmasses, making Africa appear smaller and regions near the poles disproportionately large. The non-binding resolution promotes greater use of equal-area maps, including the Equal Earth projection, which more accurately preserve the relative size of continents.
African Union Leads Campaign
“Our approach, the African group approach, is not directed against any nation, any civilisation, or any cartographic tradition […] Its ambition is simple: to promote the projection that better preserve the true proportion of continent, particularly equal Earth projections, including the equal Earth projection preferred, of course, by African Union,” Dussey added.
The African Union has backed the campaign as part of its ‘Correct the Map’ initiative, arguing that maps are more than navigation tools and can shape perceptions of countries, continents and their place in the world.
UN Web TV, via Viory.Video
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