What Does A Bigger African Map Really Mean For Africans?

The United Nations General Assembly has backed a new world map that more accurately represents Africa’s size, giving an African-led campaign new momentum as the continent seeks to change how it is perceived by the rest of the world.

The resolution, spearheaded by Togo and backed by African states, passed 164 votes to one, with six abstentions. The United States was the only country to vote against it, saying the measure promoted an “ideological agenda” and was a distraction from the “genuine problems of international peace, prosperity or good relations”.

The resolution promotes the 2018 Equal Earth projection, an equal-area map that represents the relative size of continents more accurately than the Mercator projection, which was developed in the 16th century and remains widely used.

The difference is particularly striking for Africa.

Africa covers about 30.3 million square kilometres, making it the world’s second-largest continent. Yet the Mercator projection makes land masses appear progressively larger as they move toward the poles, causing Africa to look smaller relative to northern-hemisphere regions.

Greenland, for example, can appear roughly comparable in size to Africa on a Mercator map. In reality, Africa is about 14 times larger.

Mercator’s projection was created in 1569 primarily to help sailors navigate. It preserves angles and makes lines representing constant compass bearings straight, but it does not preserve the relative area of continents.

The projection subsequently became one of the most familiar ways of visualising the world, appearing in classrooms, atlases and other educational materials.

That is what gives the map debate significance for African governments and campaigners. They argue that repeated visual representations of Africa as relatively small can reinforce broader perceptions of the continent as economically peripheral, despite its enormous geographical, demographic and commercial scale.

“A fair world begins with a fair map,” Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said before the vote.

The question now is whether changing that image can have consequences beyond classrooms.

It would be an overstatement to suggest that a new map will directly generate foreign investment or development aid. Investors do not decide where to put billions of dollars based on the apparent size of a continent on a classroom map.

But supporters argue that perceptions influence how markets are understood, particularly when Africa is viewed as a collection of small, distant and disconnected economies rather than as a continent of more than 1.5 billion people with a combined landmass larger than China, the United States, India and much of Europe combined.

Africa’s demographic trajectory is adding weight to that argument.

The United Nations projects that the continent’s population will continue growing rapidly for decades, with Africa expected to account for a substantial share of global population growth through 2050. Several African countries are also among the world’s fastest-growing populations.

The continent’s expanding population represents both a development challenge and a potentially enormous consumer and labour market.

The OECD says Africa’s urban population is expected to double from about 700 million to 1.4 billion by 2050. That growth will increase demand for housing, transport, electricity, healthcare, digital services, food and financial services.

Those trends make accurate perceptions of Africa’s scale more relevant to companies looking for new markets, particularly as businesses seek growth beyond mature economies.

Africa is already attracting significant amounts of international capital, although investment remains unevenly distributed.

UN Trade and Development said foreign direct investment into Africa reached about $70 billion in 2025, the third-highest level since 1990. The figure was down from the exceptional $94 billion recorded in 2024, but remained about one-third above the continent’s long-term average.

In 2024, Africa attracted a record $97 billion in FDI, equivalent to 6% of global flows. Even excluding a major urban development project in Egypt that boosted the total, investment rose 12% to about $62 billion.

The figures show both the opportunity and the problem.

Africa attracts capital, but its share of global investment remains small relative to its population, resources and future market potential. UNCTAD said Africa accounted for about 4% of global FDI in 2025.

Much of the investment is also concentrated in a relatively small number of countries and sectors, including energy, infrastructure, mining and other natural resources.

That means the bigger economic challenge is not simply how Africa is portrayed on a map but how effectively countries convert the continent’s scale into investable markets.

A more accurate map could nevertheless contribute to that effort by reinforcing a different mental model of Africa: not a marginal region on the edge of the world map, but a vast market made up of 54 countries, hundreds of millions of consumers, rapidly growing cities and substantial natural and human resources.

The opportunity is particularly relevant to technology and digital businesses.

UNCTAD’s research shows that investment in Africa’s digital economy has grown strongly in recent years, although the continent still receives a relatively small share of global digital investment. The agency says digital investment can bring capital, technology, jobs, skills and greater access to global markets.

A larger perceived market could also make it easier for companies to think about Africa at a continental level rather than treating individual countries as isolated opportunities. The African Continental Free Trade Area, for example, is intended to deepen economic integration and create a larger single market.

That does not mean the new map will cause a surge in FDI.

Foreign investors still weigh political risk, currency stability, infrastructure, taxation, regulation, access to finance, trade barriers and the availability of skilled workers. UNCTAD has warned that investment in Africa remains concentrated and that many least-developed African countries continue to face high investment risks and high costs of capital.

Aid is similarly unlikely to change because of cartography alone. Development assistance is driven primarily by poverty, humanitarian needs, strategic priorities and donor policies.

But the symbolic argument made by African governments is that perception matters because it can influence which problems are noticed, which markets are considered and how Africa’s role in the global economy is understood.

The Equal Earth projection therefore does not make Africa physically larger. It changes the visual frame through which its existing size is understood.

That distinction is important.

“Equal Earth” is not a claim that Africa should receive more investment or aid simply because it occupies more space. It is an argument that the world’s visual representation should accurately reflect a continent whose geographical, demographic and economic weight is already much greater than conventional maps often suggest.

He said the Equal Earth version offers “the best perception” of the world.

The resolution is not legally binding and does not prohibit the use of Mercator, which remains suited to maritime and aerial navigation. Togo plans to change its own geography books and encourage other governments, schools, international organisations and technology companies to adopt more accurate projections.

“Togo will be the first country ⁠to change our own geography books. In the classroom, we need to change it to give an example to all the countries in the world,” Dussey said.

Togo also plans to meet African Union member states and supporters from other regions over the next six months to promote wider adoption.

Dussey has linked the campaign to efforts to confront colonial-era legacies, while saying it is not an attack on Europe or another civilisation.

“The world is ‌changing. Africa also is changing,” he said.

The map’s biggest potential impact may therefore not be an immediate increase in aid or investment, but a change in the starting point of the conversation.

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