Nigeria joins 163 countries backing UN resolution to show Africa at its true size on world maps

The United Nations General Assembly has backed an African-led campaign to correct the way the world sees Africa on maps.

The “Correct the Map” resolution passed by 164 votes to one, with six abstentions. Nigeria joined the 163 other countries supporting the measure. The United States cast the only opposing vote, while Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine abstained.

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

Formally titled “Correct the Map: Rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world’s regions, particularly Africa,” the resolution calls for wider use of the Equal Earth projection and other equal-area maps when comparing the size of continents and countries. Africa covers about 30 million square kilometres and ranks as the world’s second-largest continent by land area and population, but conventional Mercator maps make it appear considerably smaller than it is.

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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, building on an African Union-backed initiative. Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told the General Assembly that maps were more than technical illustrations. “Maps shape our understanding of the world. They guide education, nourish the imagination and influence collective perceptions,” he said.

The resolution says distorted representations contribute to the “symbolic minimisation” of Africa and other regions in the global imagination. It also states, “A fair map does not change the geography of the world; it changes how we see the world,” followed by the phrase, “a fair world begins with a fair map.” Developed in 2018, the Equal Earth projection preserves the relative areas of countries and continents. The United States rejected the initiative, arguing that the General Assembly should focus on more urgent global challenges. France supported it and announced plans to stop using Mercator for its official world maps, which would make northern countries such as France, the United States and Russia appear smaller relative to countries near the equator.

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a fair world begins with a fair map.