Nigeria and 163 Countries Back UN Resolution for a Larger Africa on World Maps

Africa’s demand to be shown at its true scale on world maps won overwhelming backing at the United Nations, with 164 countries voting for an African-led resolution and only the United States voting against it. Six countries abstained.

Nigeria joined the 163 other supporters of the resolution, formally titled “Correct the Map: Rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world’s regions, particularly Africa.” The African Union-backed campaign challenges the way conventional Mercator maps make Africa appear far smaller than its actual dimensions.

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Maps shape our understanding of the world. They guide education, nourish the imagination and influence collective perceptions.

Africa covers approximately 30 million square kilometres and ranks as the world’s second-largest continent by both land area and population. The resolution promotes wider use of the Equal Earth projection and other equal-area maps when comparing the relative size of continents and countries. Developed in 2018, Equal Earth presents Africa closer to its actual scale by avoiding the distortions that enlarge territories nearer the poles.

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A fair map does not change the geography of the world; it changes how we see the world.

Togo led negotiations for the African Group. Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told the General Assembly, “Maps shape our understanding of the world. They guide education, nourish the imagination and influence collective perceptions.” The resolution says distorted representations contribute to the “symbolic minimisation” of Africa and other regions in the global imagination. Its supporters also argued that “A fair map does not change the geography of the world; it changes how we see the world,” and that “a fair world begins with a fair map.”

The United States rejected the initiative, saying the General Assembly should concentrate on more urgent global challenges. France supported it and announced plans to move away from Mercator in its official world maps. The source text ends while discussing how that change would affect the appearance of France, the United States, Russia and other northern countries.

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A fair world begins with a fair map.