Togo to ask UN members to adopt world maps that show true size of Africa
Togo has launched a campaign to adopt a world map that better represents the true size of Africa.
“The size we see of the continent on the globe…is geographically inaccurate,” the country’s foreign minister told Reuters. He said it’s time for “scientific truth.”
Now Togo will ask United Nations member states to commit to ditching European centred maps in favour of more accurate representations.
Earlier this year, the African Union adopted a resolution to address historical distortions caused by the much-used Mercator projection.
First presented in the 16th century, the map shows landmasses further from the equator – such as Greenland and Antarctica – to be larger than they are, while Africa is visually reduced.
Advocacy group Africa No Filter has called the Mercator projection “a colonial legacy that has distorted Africa’s identity and reshaped how the world perceives the Global South.”
