Correct the map

AT THE UNITED NATIONS, 164 countries have just voted to unmask the World. A resolution called Correct The Map, brought by Togo on behalf of the African Union that sought to change how the Mother Continent is portrayed on maps, met with unanimous support. And, unsurprisingly although disappointingly we are sure for a great number of citizens of the United States of America, their country voted against reason; voted for a map created in 1569 which distorts how Africa and the rest of the world is represented visually.

The way the US voted and the attitude towards this “Correct the Map resolution designated A/ RES/80/307, runs very much along the same lines that the worlds most powerful nation has voted every year for the past 33 years on the question about removing the 67 year old economic and financial blockade of Cuba at the United Nations.The United States of America has consistently stood against the overwhelming majority of member-nations at the UN General Assembly as they voted against a resolution which calls for removing a stifling -some say criminalpolicy of strangulation of a small nation ninety miles from its southern tip of Florida.There was even one year, during the presidency of Barack Obama, when the very United States abstained on this question when the resolution, presented by Cuba, was debated.

But like the vote on the Cuban blockade, we should not expect to see changes enforced on how Africa is presented on world maps within the United States any time soon. But that does not matter, because the overwhelming majority of the community of nations at the General Assembly, including all the Permanent Nations of the Security Council, the United Kingdom and the European Union, have supported the principle of changing outdated cartography for real science representation.

The projections of the map of the world which has been used since 1569 greatly distorts how the continent of Africa is projected to the world; and perceptions matter.The Mercator map, named for a cartographer Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594), has remained the global standard since it was drawn in the 16th century and has served as an instrument of domination through perception.

This was not drawn out of mere ignorance, and if it was, we must ask ourselves why, centuries later, with all the advances in science and space travel,

nobody has sought to correct this error. Clearly, because it suited the colonial project and the imperial powers to under-represent Africa as being distorted in a manner which makes it appear much smaller that it is in reality. Is it any coincidence that the vast mineral rich continent of Africa was also called the Dark Continent?

But Africa is awakening from its slumber on many fronts and is taking its rightful place as the largest continent and the birthplace of civilization. The goal of the African Union is to proceed from advocacy for principle, to accountability for practice, and to push for the Equal Earth map to be used in schools and institutions worldwide.

We here call on CARICOM through the Caribbean Examinations Council to guide all our education ministries to move with dispatch toward ensuring that the Equal Earth map is used; it could even be done as soon as the current school year- 2026/27.

We have the power to so do and should not procrastinate. This is one element of the Repair Battle which we do control and can advance on fairly quickly. It is time to CORRECT THE MAP.