By Ghazali Ibrahim
The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly backed an African-led campaign to promote a world map that more accurately represents the size of Africa and other continents.
The resolution, titled “Correct the Map: Rebalancing Global Cartographic Representation and Promoting Equitable Representation of the World’s Regions, Particularly Africa,” was adopted on Friday, September 4, 2026, with 164 countries voting in favour, one against and six abstaining. The United States was the only country to vote against it.
The initiative was spearheaded by Togo on behalf of the African Union, following growing criticism of the centuries-old Mercator projection, which makes land areas near the poles appear disproportionately large.
Under the Mercator projection, Greenland can appear roughly comparable in size to Africa, despite Africa being about 14 times larger in actual land area.
The UN-backed resolution promotes the wider use of Equal Earth, an equal-area projection developed in 2018 that represents continents according to their relative surface areas.
Africa consequently appears considerably larger, while Europe, North America and other regions closer to the poles appear smaller than they do on a Mercator map.
African campaigners have argued that the issue goes beyond cartography, saying distorted maps can influence how people perceive Africa’s geographical importance and place in the world.
The campaign, known as #CorrectTheMap, has been backed by the African Union and advocacy organisations seeking greater use of accurate maps in schools, institutions, media and public communication.
However, the UN decision does not legally ban the Mercator projection. The General Assembly resolution is non-binding and encourages countries and organisations to use more accurate equal-area projections where the relative size of land masses is important. Mercator remains useful for navigation because of its ability to preserve directions.
The vote nevertheless represents a major diplomatic victory for the African-led campaign and could encourage governments, educational institutions, publishers and digital platforms to reconsider how they depict the continent on general-purpose world maps.
