New World Map : See Beyond The Enlargement

T he UN General Assembly has voted to replace the traditional world map with one that more accurately reflects the size of Africa. The "Correct the Map" resolution, sponsored by Togo and backed by African Union (AU) members, passed with the support of 164 nations, including France and the UK. The US was the only nation to vote against it - while there were six abstentions. The UN vote is non-binding but will see changes to the maps used by institutions around the world. The Mercator map, which has been in common use since the 16th Century, has come in for criticism as it shows Africa as being of similar in size to Greenland, even though it is actually 14 times lar­ ger. In February, the AU's 54 member States unanimously adopted it, and said it ‘‘more accurately represents the sizes of all continents, particularly Africa’’. Online campaign group “Correct The Map” noted that the United States, China, India, Japan, Mexico and much of Europe could fit into Africa and still have land to spare. Ahead of the UN vote, Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told news agency Reuters: "A fair world begins with a fair map." Indeed, Africa has not only suffered from prejudice on the cartographical representation but also on the global power sharing table. The African continent has 54 votes out of 193 countries that make up the UN General Assembly, giving it 28 per cent of the total votes of the UN General As­ sembly. Paradoxically, the continent does not have a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, one of the key decision organs in matters of international security. In 2005, African Union adopted what it called “the Ezulwini Consensus” which demands at least two permanent seats with veto powers and five non-permanent seats for Africa in the UN Se­ curity Council. Africa has no permanent represen­ tation on the UN Security Council despite accounting for over a quarter of UN member States and being the subject of roughly 80 per cent of the Council's resolutions over the last decade. This is yet to come to fruition probably because the continent has had divided voices on the issue especially who those representatives would be. Regional block leaders like Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa all wants to feature as the two representatives and this is not helping matters for the continent. However, African leaders and the African Union Commission frame the lack of permanent repre­ sentation as a correction of historic inequality rather than a favour. While the continent drives most of the Council's peace and security agenda, African nations lack equivalent decision-making power. Nevertheless, Analysts say the UN resolution's si­ gnificance reaches well beyond cartography. The initiative, proposed by Togo and endorsed by the African Union (AU) before winning overwhelming support at the UN, is in their view both a rare display of the continent speaking with one voice and a measure of Africa's growing ability to place its own concerns on the international agenda. It is this same energy and a single voice that would have animated the continent in clamouring for in­ tegration into the global decision-making stage. The new world map and the en...