UN backs map showing Africa’s true size

<span>UN backs map showing Africa’s true size </span> <span><span>Siya Tsewu</span></span> <span><time datetime="2026-09-05T12:55:20+02:00" title="Saturday, September 5, 2026 - 12:55">Sat, 09/05/2026 - 12:55</time> </span>

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<div class="text-long"><p lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB">JOHANNESBURG - The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution calling for a world map that better represents Africa's actual size.</span><span> </span></p><p lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB">The resolution was sponsored by Togo and supported by 164 countries including France and the United Kingdom.</span><span> </span></p><p lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB">The United States voted against it and six countries abstained.</span><span> </span></p><p lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB">The Mercator projection has been criticized for making regions near the equator appear smaller than they are.</span><span> </span></p><p lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB">Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland despite the two appearing roughly the same size on the Mercator map.</span><span> </span></p><p lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB">The projection was created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 for navigation.</span><span> </span></p><p lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB">Its distortion reflects the difficulty of representing the spherical Earth on a flat map.</span><span> </span></p></div>

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