THE United Nations has passed a resolution to adopt a new world map that would more accurately represent nations’ sizes.
The new map is aimed at correcting Africa’s size on the map, which has historically been underrepresented.
The UN is getting rid of the Mercator map and implementing a new Equal Earth projection.
The widely-used Mercator map was developed by 16th century Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator.
The map is skewed by overrepresenting land masses closer to the poles.
For example, Greenland is shown as roughly the same size as Africa, even though Africa is 14 times larger.
The African Union and the Bahamas, led by Togo, spearheaded the resolution.
The resolution “in no way challenges the use of the Mercator projection for maritime and aerial navigation, for which it remains fully suited,” the Togolese ministry said in a statement.
The US, the only country to vote against the resolution, said it served an “ideological agenda” and is a distraction from the “genuine problems of international peace, prosperity or good relations.”
Moky Makura, the executive director of the advocacy organization Africa No Filter, said the resolution was the first step to a fairer representation of the continent.
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“We want to see accurate maps in schools, textbooks, newsrooms, businesses and on the digital platforms billions of people use every day,” Makura said in a statement.
“If we got something as basic as Africa’s size wrong for this long, what else about Africa have we simply accepted without questioning?
“Africa doesn’t need to be made bigger. It needs to be seen accurately.”
Before the resolution was passed, France announced that it would be abandoning the Mercator map.
“The United States, Russia and China take on a disproportionate visual prominence compared to Africa, Latin America or southeast Asia,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a speech.
He added that “distortions eventually take root in perceptions” and that “the time has come to correct them.”
Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told Reuters that the unequal representation was a product of colonialism.
“A fair world begins with a fair map,” he said.
“The world is changing. Africa also is changing.”