The president of the African Union (AU) Commission, Mahmud Ali Yusuf, celebrated this Friday the resolution approved by the UN General Assembly "in favor of a more just and faithful cartographic representation" of Africa and the rest of the regions of the planet, a text that encourages the international community to stop using the Mercator projection.
"The adoption of this resolution marks an important advance. Designed in the 16th century to meet the needs of navigation, the Mercator projection does not faithfully restore the relative surfaces of the different regions of the world and gives a considerably reduced visual representation of the actual size of the African continent," he explained in a statement.
The AU official also expressed his recognition to the African states and, in particular, to Togo, the main supporter of the initiative, which has "brought this initiative" before the Assembly "on behalf of Africa and has contributed to mobilizing broad support within the international community."
"Beyond cartography, this initiative reminds us of the importance of representing Africa based on objective and scientifically established realities. The president of the Commission urges, in this regard, international institutions, educational systems, publishers, and actors in the digital sector to progressively favor the use of cartographic representations that are more faithful to the actual surfaces," he said.
"Africa must be represented as it is: in its true dimensions and in its rightful place in the world," he added.
The resolution, supported by 164 countries and with a single vote against, that of the United States, in addition to six abstentions, states that "cartographic distortions in the size of the continents, inherited from history, have contributed to misconceptions, particularly leading to a symbolic minimization of Africa in the collective imagination."
At the same time, the document emphasizes "the need to promote more accurate and scientifically grounded cartographic representations of the globe" and encourages Member States, international organizations, and other relevant actors to incorporate the Equal Earth projection, which reflects countries and continents with size proportions more aligned with reality.
The Mercator model, devised by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 to facilitate maritime navigation, continues to be the dominant reference on a global scale, despite the distortion of surfaces increasing the further they are from the equator.