Africa: What New Africa Map Means for Tanzania

What the report says

The United Nations General Assembly has backed a resolution encouraging broader use of map projections that show continents in more accurate relative sizes, a move that could affect how geography is taught and understood in Tanzania, according to Tanzania Daily News, distributed by AllAfrica. The resolution, led by Togo and supported by African countries, passed overwhelmingly on Friday. It does not ban the familiar Mercator projection, but it asks governments, schools, international bodies and technology firms to consider alternatives such as the Equal Earth projection.

In Tanzania, the development has drawn attention for reasons beyond classroom maps. Dr Nestory Yamungu, head of geography at the University of Dar es Salaam, said it offers a chance to rethink how people learn about the country’s physical geography and to strengthen scientific research. He said the long-used Mercator projection has been criticized because it enlarges areas near the poles and can make Africa appear smaller than it is.

Yamungu said Tanzania’s education system may need to revisit map-reading and map-drawing lessons if more equal-area maps are adopted. He also said students should be encouraged to question how geographic features are represented on flat maps versus their real size. More broadly, he argued that Tanzanian researchers should do more scientific work on the country’s lakes, rivers, mountains, islands and other physical features, which could help improve understanding and use of natural resources.