Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey has urged the United Nations to support a new representation of Africa on world maps, criticizing the long-used Mercator projection for distorting the continent’s true size.
Speaking at the UN as part of the “Correct the Map” campaign, he highlighted that Africa, with an area of 30.3 million square kilometers including its islands, accounts for 20% of the Earth’s landmass and nearly 6% of the planet’s surface, yet is often shown as much smaller than Europe or North America.
Dussey emphasized that Africa’s real size could encompass the United States, Russia, India, France, the United Kingdom, and China combined, underlining the continent’s global importance.
With its population projected to reach up to 1.5 billion by 2030, representing about 18% of the world’s population, Togo called on both the UN and the African Union to endorse the “Decolonize Geography” initiative and establish a more accurate political map of Africa.
