Adedokun Waliyu The United Nations General Assembly voted Friday to adopt a new world map that makes the African continent appear larger while shrinking North America and Europe, drawing criticism from Washington.
Aimed at providing “a more accurate representation” of continental landmasses, the resolution was supported by 164 countries, while the United States voted against it and six other countries abstained.
The new map, known as the Equal Earth cartographic projection, is designed to improve “the accuracy of the cartographic representation of the world,” according to the resolution.
It urges member states to use the new map instead of the traditional Mercator projection, which was designed for maritime navigation by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569.
Foreign Minister Robert Dussey of Togo, which sponsored the resolution, said maps “guide education, nourish the imagination, and influence collective perceptions.”
“They are therefore never neutral; when they present a distorted image of our planet, they risk perpetuating inaccurate representation that is passed down through generations.”
The United States, however, criticised the resolution, saying such moves are “the reason this institution is losing its credibility.”
“Instead of focusing on genuine problems… this body is debating map projects from the 16th century and their role in promoting reparations and cognitive justice,” US representative Yaryna Ferencevych said ahead of the vote.
‘Distorted Representation’
The Mercator projection focused on accurately depicting the shapes and angles of land masses, but their relative sizes were often inaccurate because of the challenge of representing a three-dimensional globe on a two-dimensional map.
It inflated northern regions and compressed equatorial ones, making Europe and North America appear much larger while shrinking Africa and South America.
A group of cartographers launched the Equal Earth projection in 2018. The projection makes Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Oceania appear much larger.
“Equal Earth preserves the relative surface areas of continents and, as much as possible, shows their shapes as they appear on a globe,” one of the cartographers, Bojan Savric, said.
France, which co-sponsored the resolution in support of the new map, announced Friday that it would abandon the Mercator projection.
In the Mercator map, “the United States, Russia and China take on a disproportionate visual prominence compared to Africa, Latin America or southeast Asia,” while “Greenland appears almost as big as Africa,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.
“Changing maps obviously doesn’t change the world,” he said. “But correcting a distorted representation is already an act of truth.”
The initiative comes as France seeks to improve relations with Africa, particularly in former colonies with which it has had strained ties.
