Togo has announced plans to replace its national geography curriculum and classroom maps by the end of 2026, becoming the first country to formally implement a new United Nations resolution aimed at correcting historical map distortions.
The announcement follows a decisive 164-1 General Assembly vote on Friday adopting the West African Nation-led "Correct the Map" initiative. The resolution encourages educational systems, media organisations, and technology platforms to transition away from the 1569 Mercator projection toward equal-area alternatives such as the Equal Earth projection, which accurately represent the true proportional sizes of continents.
Developed primarily for nautical navigation, the Mercator projection distorts landmasses as they recede from the equator. This formula inflates northern hemisphere nations while visually shrinking equatorial regions, depicting Greenland and Africa as roughly equal in area despite Africa being approximately 14 times larger.
Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey confirmed that Togo will immediately lead by example in updating its own educational materials before lobbying other nations and digital mapping providers.
"Togo will be the first country to change our own geography books," Dussey told Reuters. "In the classroom, we need to change it to give an example to all the countries in the world."
The diplomatic campaign, supported by the African Union, seeks to address the lasting cognitive and cultural legacies of colonial-era cartography. Togolese officials emphasised that the resolution is non-binding and does not seek to prohibit Mercator for maritime or aerial navigation, where its angular accuracy remains mathematically necessary. Over the next six months, Togolese diplomats plan to meet with African Union member states, international publishing houses, and technology firms operating GPS and mapping services to coordinate broader global integration.
The United States cast the lone vote against the resolution, criticising the assembly for focusing on historical cartographic debates rather than pressing security crises. Six nations abstained from the final tally.
