A plan by Togo to ask the United Nations General Assembly in September to move away from the Mercator world map has revived a broader debate over how different projections can shape perceptions of Africa.
Issued on: 10/05/2026 - RFI
Africa’s representation on world maps is under renewed focus, as Togo challenges the use of a centuries-old projection.
ASSOCIATED PRESS - Charles Rex Arbogast
By:Anne-Marie Bissada
The proposal was approved by the African Union in April after leaders raised the issue during the bloc’s February summit, backing a campaign to replace the long dominant Mercator projection with one that more accurately reflects the true size of the world's continents – especially Africa.
Faya Ndiaye, co-founder and deputy executive director of advocacy organisation Speak Up Africa, argues that distorting the true size of countries on maps can quietly shape how people view who matters in the world.
“I think it’s important to note that maps are not neutral," she told RFI.
Of the widely used Mercator map, she said: “Greenland appears almost as large as Africa, when in reality Africa is 14 times larger."
Shaping perceptions
For Africa, Ndiaye said, being shown as smaller than its true size can send a damaging message about the continent’s importance – and even cause it to be sidelined in negotiations.
The African Union published a decision during its February summit backing the use of the Equal Earth wall map – despite the Mercator outline still appearing in its own logo.
“The Mercator cartographic projection distorts the real size of the African continent, influences perceptions, and negatively affects the objective assessment of Africa’s economic viability,” it said in a statement.
By:Anne-Marie Bissada
The proposal was approved by the African Union in April after leaders raised the issue during the bloc’s February summit, backing a campaign to replace the long dominant Mercator projection with one that more accurately reflects the true size of the world's continents – especially Africa.
Faya Ndiaye, co-founder and deputy executive director of advocacy organisation Speak Up Africa, argues that distorting the true size of countries on maps can quietly shape how people view who matters in the world.
“I think it’s important to note that maps are not neutral," she told RFI.
Of the widely used Mercator map, she said: “Greenland appears almost as large as Africa, when in reality Africa is 14 times larger."
Shaping perceptions
For Africa, Ndiaye said, being shown as smaller than its true size can send a damaging message about the continent’s importance – and even cause it to be sidelined in negotiations.
The African Union published a decision during its February summit backing the use of the Equal Earth wall map – despite the Mercator outline still appearing in its own logo.
“The Mercator cartographic projection distorts the real size of the African continent, influences perceptions, and negatively affects the objective assessment of Africa’s economic viability,” it said in a statement.
The Equal Earth map. © Tom Patterson
Geography remains one of several enduring markers that continue to shape perceptions of Africa, said Carlos Lopes of the Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Lopes – one of the academics behind the Correct the Map project, which was established in 2025 with Africa No Filter, a group focused on changing global narratives about Africa – says the way the continent is viewed is still influenced by how the world is drawn.
“There are some markers that continue to be used that influence the views about the continent,” he told RFI. “One of those markers is the way we look into geography.”
Geography remains one of several enduring markers that continue to shape perceptions of Africa, said Carlos Lopes of the Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Lopes – one of the academics behind the Correct the Map project, which was established in 2025 with Africa No Filter, a group focused on changing global narratives about Africa – says the way the continent is viewed is still influenced by how the world is drawn.
“There are some markers that continue to be used that influence the views about the continent,” he told RFI. “One of those markers is the way we look into geography.”
Mercator legacy
Still widely used around the world, the Mercator projection was first drawn in 1569 by Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator. It transformed navigation by helping sailors chart more direct routes across oceans, by representing compass directions as straight lines.
Its design was a major scientific breakthrough at the time, but critics say its lasting dominance also reflects the values of a period in which European powers placed themselves at the centre of a colonial world view.
“Maybe [the Mercator map] was not meant to minimise Africa, but we know that it was important for European powers to place Europe as the centre of the of the world,” Ndiaye said.
In the 1500s, its creation was “amazingly progressive," said Lopes, describing it as an ambitious effort to design a map that brought the world together.
“But that’s the 16th century, it’s not today,” he added. “It can only be justified in the name of comfort and in the name of the power dynamics of that time. Keeping the same mentality in today’s world is not acceptable because we know better.”
Gall-Peters Projection
The debate over map projections is linked to wider efforts to correct narratives about Africa.
During struggles for independence by colonised African countries in the 1950s and '60s, efforts to reduce colonial markers often focused on changing the names of streets and even the countries themselves.
In 1957, for example, when the British colony known then as the Gold Coast gained its independence, it took the name Ghana to honour its ancient Ghana empire. Following its independence from the United Kingdom in 1980, Zimbabwe changed its name from Rhodesia, and the name of its capital from Salisbury to Harare.
But the debate over how Africa as a whole was represented largely remained within academic circles, said Ndiaye.
That changed when cartographers proposed the Gall-Peters Projection. James Gall, a Scottish clergyman and cartographer, had first outlined the map in 1855, but Arno Peters, a German historian, revived the idea and brought it to international attention in the early 1970s.
Peters argued that the Gall-Peters map was a socially just projection because it preserved equal-area projection – the true relative size of landmasses.
He pushed the name "Peters World Map", saying it was easier to brand, and tied this directly to his campaign to change the world map.
The Peters projection map of the world. © By Strebe (Wikimedia Commons)
“The Peters Projection was actually quite popular with the UN,” said Lopes. “A lot of UN agencies [began] producing maps using the Peters Projection.”
Peters officially presented his map in 1973, including on it a legend to help people understand why it looked different from the more familiar Mercator version.
It was adopted throughout the mid-1970s and 1980s by agencies including the UN's Unesco and Unicef and the World Council of Churches, and remains widely used by schools across the United Kingdom and in parts of the United States.
However, while the Peters World map fixed one problem – land area distortion – it introduced another: shape distortion. For example, countries near the equator such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia appear tall and narrow, while high-latitude countries such as Canada and Russia appear flattened and widened.
While UNESCO and UNICEF continue to use the Peters projection, there has been pushback against it since the 1980s.
In 1989, several geographic organisations, including the National Geographic Society in the US, the American Cartographic Association (now the Cartography and Geographic Information Society) and the National Council for Geographic Education, came together to call for a ban on all rectangular coordinate maps, including Peters projection.
Today’s campaign, Ndiaye said, aims to move the debate beyond academia and into public discussion so Africans can “take full ownership over how our continent is being represented globally”.
“The Peters Projection was actually quite popular with the UN,” said Lopes. “A lot of UN agencies [began] producing maps using the Peters Projection.”
Peters officially presented his map in 1973, including on it a legend to help people understand why it looked different from the more familiar Mercator version.
It was adopted throughout the mid-1970s and 1980s by agencies including the UN's Unesco and Unicef and the World Council of Churches, and remains widely used by schools across the United Kingdom and in parts of the United States.
However, while the Peters World map fixed one problem – land area distortion – it introduced another: shape distortion. For example, countries near the equator such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia appear tall and narrow, while high-latitude countries such as Canada and Russia appear flattened and widened.
While UNESCO and UNICEF continue to use the Peters projection, there has been pushback against it since the 1980s.
In 1989, several geographic organisations, including the National Geographic Society in the US, the American Cartographic Association (now the Cartography and Geographic Information Society) and the National Council for Geographic Education, came together to call for a ban on all rectangular coordinate maps, including Peters projection.
Today’s campaign, Ndiaye said, aims to move the debate beyond academia and into public discussion so Africans can “take full ownership over how our continent is being represented globally”.
