Atlas, transitioning from the proper noun of the mythological figure bearing the celestial vault on his shoulders to a common noun designating a collection of maps, remains the one who holds the world—and may hold the power to orient it. For a long time, our familiar representation of the world bears the imprint of Mercator's projection, which, designed to facilitate navigation, progressively enlarges the dimensions of territories as they approach the poles. Africa is thus one part of the globe whose surface area appears considerably reduced. Recently, this "magnitude" of the continent received a form of international recognition. Last week was marked by a vote at the United Nations headquarters that drew attention. Togo, on behalf of the African Group, submitted a resolution aimed at "correcting" the world map and this skewed representation of Africa. Following the vote, the resolution was adopted by 164 votes. It notably encourages the use of projections that more faithfully restore surface areas. The contrast is striking: Africa is in reality fourteen times larger than Greenland, whereas on Mercator's projection, the two territories may appear to be of comparable dimensions. At its true scale, Africa is also nearly three times larger than Europe and larger than North America as well. Thinker Alfred Korzybski is known, among other things, for an assertion: "the map is not the territory." A representation, like the world maps that have nonetheless helped us know our planet, is never the reality it represents. The error would then be to believe that representation and the represented maintain a relationship of identity. The problem arises especially when we forget the function to which a representation responds, as in the case of Mercator's projection, and end up taking the image for reality. The territory itself has remained the same, but the representation can change, bringing our view of the world with it. Power can also be exercised through what Pierre Bourdieu calls "symbolic power": that of imposing a certain perception of the world, to which we become accustomed until we find it natural. A dominant representation of the world becomes, for us, the world itself. Correcting the representation of Africa obviously does not modify its surface area or geography, but changes the map that presents itself to our gaze and, perhaps, the place we symbolically accord to the continent.