UN map resolution puts Africa’s size back in focus

by AKANI CHAUKE
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – FOR generations, people around the world have looked at maps that make Africa appear far smaller than it actually is.

Now, a United Nations resolution has reignited debate over how the world is represented on maps and the influence those representations can have on perceptions of geography, history and Africa’s place in the world.

The UN General Assembly adopted the “Correct the Map” resolution on September 4, with 164 countries voting in favour, one against and six abstaining.

Led by Togo and the African Union (AU), the non-binding resolution encourages governments, schools, international organisations and technology companies to use map projections that more accurately represent the relative size of continents.

Among the projections highlighted is Equal Earth, an equal-area map projection developed in 2018 by Bojan Šavrič, Bernhard Jenny and Tom Patterson.

For Dr Nisa Ayob, a senior lecturer in geography at North-West University (NWU), the debate is about much more than making Africa appear larger.

It raises fundamental questions about how maps shape people’s understanding of the world and why cartographers should select projections according to their intended purpose.

At the centre of the debate is the Mercator projection, developed in the 16th century primarily for maritime navigation.

The projection preserves direction, making it particularly useful to sailors plotting courses. However, it progressively enlarges land masses towards the poles, meaning regions closer to the Equator appear proportionally smaller.

Africa, much of which lies around the Equator, is therefore not visually enlarged to the same extent as Europe, North America and Greenland.

South America is similarly affected.

“The problem is not that the Mercator projection is technically ‘wrong’; the problem is that it has been used far beyond the purpose for which it was designed,” says Ayob.

Greenland provides one of the clearest illustrations of the distortion. On a Mercator map, the island can appear comparable in size to Africa, although Africa is about 14 times larger.

Ayob says the significance of the debate extends beyond cartography because maps are not merely technical tools.

“Maps are not only technical products; they are also powerful communication tools,” she says.

People looking at a world map rarely calculate the actual size of continents. Instead, they develop a mental picture based largely on what they see.

Repeated exposure to distorted representations can therefore influence perceptions of Africa’s geographical scale and, potentially, its significance in relation to other parts of the world.

The UN resolution has brought renewed attention to equal-area projections such as Equal Earth, which preserve the relative size of land masses more accurately than projections designed primarily to preserve other properties.

“Africa is not being ‘made bigger’ through these projections; rather, its size is being represented proportionally in relation to the rest of the world,” says Ayob.

The resolution itself does not ban the Mercator projection or require countries to adopt a single alternative. Instead, it promotes greater awareness of the limitations of different projections and encourages the use of equal-area maps where relative size is important.

Ayob cautions that replacing one world map with another does not eliminate distortion.

No flat map can perfectly represent the curved surface of the Earth. Every projection must compromise on at least one property, whether area, shape, distance or direction.

The challenge for cartographers is therefore to choose a projection that is appropriate for the question being asked.

A projection suitable for navigation, for example, may not be the most appropriate for comparing the geographical size of continents.

The debate could also provide an opportunity for South African schools and universities to reconsider the maps used in classrooms, says Ayob.

Learners could compare Mercator and equal-area projections and observe how Africa, Europe, North America and Greenland change in appearance between them.

Such exercises could help students understand that maps are constructed representations of geographical reality rather than perfect pictures of the Earth.

Ayob teaches geographical information systems and spatial analysis to undergraduate and postgraduate students. Her work examines how spatial data, cartographic decisions and map projections influence the interpretation of geographical information.

“We should not simply replace one wall map with another without explanation,” she says.

Instead, students should be encouraged to question the maps in front of them: What does the projection preserve? What does it distort? And is it suitable for the geographical question they are trying to answer?

The UN debate has therefore shifted attention from simply asking which map is “correct” to a more fundamental question: what does a map tell us about the world, and how should we interpret what we see?

– CAJ News