UN Votes Friday to Phase Out Mercator Map

Dussey, who says the resolution is sponsored by Togo and backed by the African Union's 54 other member states, rejected the idea that it is politics. "This discussion is not a political discussion [but] a scientific discussion, because there is scientific proof so we all have to accept the reality," he said.

He framed the stakes as bigger than geography. "A map is never neutral," he told the African Group. "It shapes perceptions, influences how the place of peoples and continents in the world is understood, and may, sometimes from the earliest years of schooling, perpetuate representations that do not correspond to geographic reality."

"Africa is not asking for preferential treatment," he added. "Africa is asking that its reality, aspirations and contribution to the international system be duly taken into account." Asked whether he expected opposition, he said: "I'm an academic before a politician. As an academic, I say we have to have as large a consensus as possible, because we are here at the UN, we never know."

To critics asking why now, Dussey said: "To those who say why now, I say, why not? When we look at the world map … it is time for us to change the narrative."

Historians and geographers have argued for years that the Mercator projection reflects western assumptions about the world; some activists call it "cartographic colonialism." JJ Enoch, a London-based senior associate at the geopolitical risk advisory firm JS Held, tied the campaign to African nations seeking "greater influence in global institutions and greater control over how the continent is represented," and said an equal-area map "would provide a more accurate basis for education and public understanding."