Africa No Filter

Okay, okay.

And I think I asked that because you did some work with Africa No Filter about destigmatizing the conversation around contraceptives.

So what was the story behind that campaign? And did it turn out how you had envisioned it to turn out? And what was the message you were trying to pass?

So I think there's a lot of, again, like the stereotypes in terms of, so the conversation we're having, the first one was, Uh, cause I've seen a lot of women go through like different contraception methods and the effects that it has on them.

On common maps, Africa appears similar in size to Greenland, despite the continent being 14 times larger.

Moky Makura from the advocacy organization Africa No Filter told us how she felt about this long-awaited recognition for change

changeExcitement, I would say, is a huge part of how I felt because it was sort of nearly two years of work to get to that point.

It was almost unanimous, 164 countries voted in our favor, and you cannot be anything but pleased.

The map that we were using for 400 years was wrong, factually wrong.

The one we're asking you to use now is right, because we want to make sure our children, the education system, our schools are teaching our children the right thing.

Moki Makura, the executive director of Africa No Filter.

To Mexico now, where researchers think they've come up with a solution to make physiotherapy more enjoyable for people recovering from a brain injury.

The resolution urges governments, schools, and tech platforms to abandon maps that make Africa look much smaller than it is.

So, what does this shift mean for Africans, educators, and tech giants like Google? For this conversation, I'm joined by Moky Makura, she's executive director of Africa No Filter, one of the organizations behind this campaign, and DW's Isaac Alechi.

Moky, your team's advocacy has just achieved a historic win.

You must be excited.

That's what it would mean to me.

Thank you so much for speaking with us.

Moky Makura is the executive director of Africa No Filter.

Earlier you heard DW's Isaac Alege.

Okay, let's start at the beginning.

Why was it important for Africa No Filter to launch this hashtag correct the map campaign?

You know, African No Filter is a narrative change organisation.

So we have been trying to change essentially the way the world sees Africa, but also how we as Africans see ourselves.

Thank you very much for your time and for your insights.

It's appreciated.

Moki Makora, Executive Director of Africa No Filter, bringing the time to three minutes to 11 o'clock.

And Natalie Malha standing by with eyewitness news at the top of the hour.

It's one of the things that the UN does that actually adds to its credibility, unfortunately.

But why does the new map matter? And just how different is Africa's true size from what we see on traditional Mercator maps? I spoke with Moky Makura, executive director of Africa No Filter.

But first, let's hear from some young Africans across the continent.

People can actually appreciate Africa for what it is and not refer to it as just, oh, one country.

165 countries voted to say, "Yes, we agree." And you'll see some things on social media that'll tell you that, you know, what else? In fact, that's something we say, what else is the world seeing wrong about us? If you look at all the stories that are told about us is that we are a broken continent because everything seems to need fixing, that we lack the agency to create the change we want to see, and the third is that we're dependent.

But I think that agency argument that we don't seem to be able to do things ourselves has been dispelled with this resolution because we did do something and no matter how insignificant people think it is, this thing went to the United Nations and a vote was taken and that is a clear indication that as Africans we have agency to create change.

Many thanks to Moky Makura, executive director of Africa No Filter.

This is Focus on Africa from the BBC World Service.

Ya se había mostrado crítico en marzo cuando se adoptó Una resolución que declaraba la trata transatlántica de esclavos como el crimen más grave contra la humanidad.

Lerato Mokoathle, integrante de Africa No Filter, uno de los grupos que impulsan la campaña para abandonar el mapa de Mercator, dice que la representación errónea de África en los mapas mundiales no es solo un error cartográfico, sino un problema narrativo.

Lerato Mokoathle, a member of Africa No Filter, one of the groups driving the campaign to abandon the Mercator map, says that the representation of error of Africa on world maps is not just a cartographic error, but a narrative problem.

Lerato Mokoathle, integrante de Africa No Filter, uno de los grupos que impulsan la campaña para abandonar el mapa de Mercator, dice que la representación errónea de África en los mapas mundiales no es solo un error cartográfico, sino un problema narrativo.

El cambio forma parte de los esfuerzos por frenar la información errónea y la desinformación más longevas del mundo sobre África, le dijo a la BBC.

The change is part of efforts to curb misinformation and misinformation and disinformation the world's longest-lived needs on Africa, he told the BBC.

It's about who gets to define the terms of global representation.

If Africa's size was wrong on the most widely used map in the world for 450 years, what else about Africa has been accepted without questioning? That's the question Moki Makura from Africa No Filter asked.

Africa doesn't need to be made bigger, she said.

It