VANK Criticizes Textbooks for Focusing Only on Poverty, Hunger, and Refugees
Government Revises Descriptions to Highlight Growth Potential, Technology, and Exchanges
Descriptions of Africa in elementary school textbooks, which have previously emphasized negative images such as poverty and hunger, will be revised. This comes as the government has responded with corrective measures to a campaign led by the cyber diplomatic organization VANK, which has highlighted cases of distortion in the depiction of Africa in domestic textbooks.
An elementary school textbook that VANK criticized for portraying Africa solely as a recipient of aid. Yonhap News
On December 17, Yonhap News reported, citing VANK, that the Ministry of Education has implemented improvements in eight elementary social studies textbooks that passed review in September. These changes include reducing content related to poverty and hunger in Africa, while increasing coverage of Africa's population, technological development, and exchanges with Korea.
Previously, VANK pointed out that its analysis of elementary social studies textbooks revealed that depictions of Africa were heavily focused on negative images such as poverty and hunger, reinforcing prejudices that portray the continent as problematic. In response, VANK launched the "Correcting Textbook Descriptions of Africa" campaign and conveyed to the Ministry of Education the need to revise distorted sections so that Africa could be viewed from a more multidimensional and respectful perspective.
The government has reflected these recommendations by implementing corrective measures. In the new textbooks, content related to the "World Hunger Map" has been reduced, and negative images such as poverty, hunger, and refugees have been mitigated. Instead, the textbooks now describe Africa's growth potential due to its increasing population and highlight technological advancements, such as in construction.
Additionally, descriptions of exchanges between Korea and Africa have been expanded beyond traditional agricultural support to include cooperation in smartphone production resources and trade relations.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also taken steps to support these efforts. The ministry decided to actively promote and utilize domestic initiatives to improve perceptions of Africa on the international diplomatic stage. Accordingly, the ministry has shared VANK's activities-such as efforts to correct discriminatory terms about Africa in foreign dictionaries-with embassies in African countries, and instructed diplomats to appropriately reference these initiatives when meeting with local officials.
Furthermore, VANK is conducting a campaign recommending the adoption of the "Equal Earth" world map, which accurately reflects the actual size and shape of continents, instead of the Mercator projection, which significantly underrepresents Africa's size. This initiative is based on the awareness that map distortions go beyond simple geographical errors and have contributed to reinforcing stereotypes about Africa.
VANK, a private organization known for its active work correcting distortions related to Dokdo, the East Sea, and Korean history in the fields of diplomacy and history, aims through this Africa-related campaign to realize the value of global citizenship education and restore balanced global perspectives.
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