African countries propose to abandon the classic world map projection, developed in the 16th century, because it distorts the real size of the region. What alternative do African states offer, writes the BBC.
On conventional school maps, Greenland appears almost commensurate with Africa. However, this is a geographical myth. In reality, the area of the African continent is over 30 million km², which is 14 times larger than Greenland's size (only 2.5 million km²).
Such deformation is the legacy of the projection by Flemish cartographer Gerard Mercator, created in 1569 for the needs of sailors. This model stretches objects as they approach the poles, making Europe and North America visually dominant, while "compressing" equatorial regions.
The distortion of the real scale of the African continent, according to many critics, directly affects how Africa is positioned in the global consciousness. A continent with colossal resources and a population of over 1.4 billion people is visually "shrunk" in the eyes of schoolchildren, politicians, and the media, contributing to its marginalization.
To correct this misleading representation, activists from the "Africa No Filter" and "Speak Up Africa" associations have launched a large-scale campaign "Correct the Map". They call for abandoning the 16th-century projection and switching to the more equitable Equal Earth projection, created in 2018. This model shows continents in their true proportional relationships, avoiding obvious distortions.
Proponents of change believe that such a distortion of reality forms a false collective consciousness, reinforces stereotypes about Africa's "secondary" status, and reflects old colonial ideologies of the world's "center" and "periphery".
According to the authors of the "Correct the Map" campaign, visual injustice affects the identity and pride of Africans, especially children, who from their first classes see their homeland artificially diminished. Today, organizations are actively working to make Equal Earth the main standard in all African schools.
This position is fully shared by the African Union (AU). This year, the organization adopted a resolution recommending that all 55 member states of the Union switch to using the Equal Earth map. The strategic goal now is to promote this approach globally through UN institutions. In April, the African Union officially mandated Togo to speak on behalf of the entire continent with this initiative.
Togo's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Robert Dussey, informed Reuters in an interview that his country is already preparing a draft UN resolution. The document is planned to be put to a vote during the session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2026.
"This step is driven by the logic of cognitive justice and scientific rigor, not by a desire to build some new hierarchy between the world's regions," explains Robert Dussey.
As early as September 2025, he loudly declared from the UN tribune the necessity to "decolonize geography."
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Comments
Для прыклада, не здзіўлюся, калі Трамп пра скажэння праекцый і не ведае, іншых мап не бачыў, таму перабольшвае важнасць Расіі, Грэнландыі, Канады.
Жадаючыя могуць пагуляць з сапраўднымі памерамі краін на сайце truesize.