UN to vote on adopting new world map that shows Africa’s true scale

Africa on the traditional world map based on the Mercator projection, left, and on the 2018 Equal Earth map, right. Composite: equal-earth.com, Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenAfrica on the traditional world map based on the Mercator projection, left, and on the 2018 Equal Earth map, right.

Composite: equal-earth.com, Getty ImagesAfricaUN to vote on adopting new world map that shows Africa’s true scaleTogo-sponsored resolution calls to phase out traditional map that depicts continent as similar size to Greenland.

Prefira o Guardian no Google A Assembleia Geral das Nações Unidas votará na sexta-feira sobre uma resolução para que o mundo desfaça formalmente o mapa tradicional de Mercator do globo em favor de um que mostre mais precisamente o tamanho da África.

Robert Dussey, Togo’s foreign affairs minister, said the resolution was sponsored by Togo and backed by countries including the African Union’s 54 other member states.

Ver imagem em tela cheia O mapa de 1569 de Gerardus Mercator (1512‑1594) permaneceu o padrão global. Fotografia: Stock Montage/Getty Images "Esta discussão não é uma discussão política [mas] uma discussão científica, porque há prova científica, então todos nós temos que aceitar a realidade," ele disse.

UN resolutions are non-enforceable but if the vote passes, it could lead to an update of classroom curriculums and everyday technology, given the wide usage of the Mercator projection in education, technology and governance.

The layout was introduced by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 to help sailors navigate the seas. Almost five centuries later it remains the global standard.

Because of its projection style, however, regions near the equator appear significantly smaller than they are, whereas high-latitude areas look much larger. For example, the map shows Africa as being similar in size to Greenland, but the continent is 14 times larger than the Danish territory.

Historiadores e geógrafos têm afirmado há anos que a projeção de Mercator está enraizada em estereótipos ocidentais. Ativistas têm ecoado essa visão, com alguns cunhando o termo “cartographic colonialism”.

View image in fullscreenThe 1973 Gall-Peters world map has been used as an alternative to the Mercator. Photograph: Michael Schmeling/AlamySome argue that the map has subtly shaped international power dynamics by minimising the physical presence of the global south and visually inflating northern hemisphere nations while shrinking equatorial regions.

Isso, dizem, reforçou preconceitos sistêmicos no comércio internacional, nas prioridades de desenvolvimento e nos currículos educacionais.

One of the Mercator projection’s most prominent critics was Arno Peters, a German historian, who launched the Peters world map based on the Gall–Peters projection in 1973.

It has often been used as an alternative to the Mercator map.

Ver imagem em tela cheia O Mapa Equal Earth 2018. Fotografia: equal-earth.com A campanha #CorrectTheMap do Togo está promovendo o uso do design mais preciso do Equal Earth 2018, desenvolvido por uma equipe internacional de cartógrafos.

Supporters say it will help to reverse perceptions of Africa and decolonise global curriculums.

Some analysts agree too. JJ Enoch, a London-based senior associate at JS Held, a geopolitical risk advisory firm, said the Mercator projection visually diminished Africa’s true scale.

He linked the campaign to a quest by African nations for “greater influence in global institutions and greater control over how the continent is represented”.

He added: “Adopting an equal-area map … would provide a more accurate basis for education and public understanding, while signalling that Africa’s demographic, economic and geopolitical importance should no longer be viewed through inherited and distorted conventions.”.

In March a Ghana-sponsored resolution to describe the slave trade as “gravest crime against humanity” passed, with 123 states voting in favour. Three states voted no and 52 abstained.

Ghana’s success has given supporters of the map cause to believe in a favourable outcome. Togo’s government is planning an event in Lomé, the Togolese capital, with Unesco, the African Union and tech brands such as Google Maps during the first quarter of next year to map out the implementation of the resolution.

Dussey disse: “Para quem pergunta por que agora, eu digo: por que não? Quando olhamos para o mapa do mundo… é hora de mudarmos a narrativa.”.

He added: “It’s time for us in Africa to take responsibility to change what we can change ourselves.”.