African-led efforts challenge inherited maps, curricula and narratives

A UN-backed campaign is promoting equal-area maps while African governments, historians and civil society groups seek greater control over education and public portrayals of the continent. Supporters describe the efforts as a response to distortions in geography, historical knowledge and media coverage, while warning that global history should not be discarded.

A United Nations resolution encouraging the use of maps that more accurately represent the relative size of continents has become a symbol of wider efforts to challenge inherited views of Africa. According to DW, 164 General Assembly members backed the resolution at the beginning of September, supporting the Equal Earth projection and other equal-area maps over the Mercator projection, which dates to the 16th century.

Togo sponsored the Correct the Map campaign, which is also supported by the African Union. Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said the initiative had generated pride and argued that Africa’s place in global representations had long been unfair. He told DW that the issue extended beyond cartography to questions of knowledge, culture, identity and perceptions of Africa’s political and economic importance. The United States was the only UN member state to reject the resolution, DW reported.

French historian Romain Tiquet of the African Worlds Institute described the map debate as part of a broader discussion about decolonizing knowledge in universities, museums, cultural institutions and civil society. He said the debate examines who created the categories used to understand the world, where those categories originated and how they reflect power relationships.

Education is another focus. DW reported that Mali’s government decided in October 2025 to remove French history from the school curriculum, ending the teaching of the French Revolution in favor of Malian history and ancient West African kingdoms. Historian Philemon Mtoi of Tumaini University Makumira said the move could strengthen national identity and encourage research into African history. He said Tanzania had also made Tanzanian history and ethics compulsory, with lessons taught in Swahili, replacing global history as a required subject. Mtoi cautioned that students should eventually learn major events in world history rather than have them erased.

Civil society groups are also seeking to alter perceptions. Africa No Filter, a partner in the Correct the Map campaign, says biased media coverage can impose substantial costs on African countries. Its #NotWaiting campaign aims to highlight local initiatives and positive developments while challenging portrayals of Africa as uniformly poor, corrupt or crisis-ridden. Africa No Filter officer Francois Bouda told DW that Africans themselves also needed to question internalized negative images and make the continent’s existing work more visible.