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On April 16, VANK, South Korea’s cyber diplomatic corps led by Park Ki-tae, said it had corrected 70 biased or discriminatory Africa-related entries in Naver Encyclopedia, including terms such as “Black Continent” and “Bushmen.”
VANK requested corrections for 36 Africa-related entries covering 84 instances; of those, 70 have been revised and 14 remain under review.
Since last year, VANK has advanced its “Get Africa Right” project to tackle Eurocentric and outdated descriptions that persist on widely used knowledge platforms.
The Naver Encyclopedia updates include 10 term and description changes and 3 image updates: “Black Continent” (5 cases), “Third World” (5), “Negro” (10), “Pygmy” (5), “Bushmen” (20), “Hottentot” (9), “Dorobo” (2), and “Galla” (1).
VANK said it replaced “Black Continent (Black/African)” with “Sub-Saharan Africa,” changed “Negro” to “African-descended peoples,” and updated “Bushmen” and “Hottentot” to “San” and “Khoikhoi,” respectively.
In the “slave quarters” entry of the book “1,001 Historic Sites You Must See Before You Die,” editors removed objectifying phrases such as “were imported,” “cargo,” and “were brought” and replaced them with wording that makes the coercion clear: “were forcibly taken” and “forced transport.”
The “Africa” entry in the Dictionary of World Place-Name Origins was revised to move beyond a stagnant, image-centered portrayal and to reflect the economic and social changes and growth trends since the 2000s.
VANK said, “This correction matters because it did more than swap terms — it shifted descriptions to reflect historical facts and contemporary perspectives.” The organization added that, given the influence of leading domestic knowledge platforms on public perception, these revisions strengthen the foundational information environment.
3 headwords in the elementary social studies reference “Genius Learning Encyclopedia: Elementary Social Studies 6-2” underwent complete revision of their titles, main text, and illustrations.
The heading “Africa’s development potential and diverse ethnic groups” was changed to “Africa’s diverse faces and peoples.”
The lead image, which had centered on hunger and disease, was revised to showcase a broader reality: rich culture and arts, vibrant music scenes, and bustling cities.
VANK reframed poverty as a global challenge that calls for collective solutions.
The title “Are African people poor because they’re lazy?” was replaced with “What are the real causes of the hardships Africa has faced?” Editors removed a poverty-focused cartoon and a subheading that had framed the continent’s difficulties solely as the result of long colonial rule.
The revised text now incorporates historical factors such as colonial domination and forced labor, while also illustrating contemporary examples of change and growth.
The “Africa’s environment” entry dropped language that framed the continent primarily as unrealized potential and was rewritten to reflect growth across sectors, a young population, and expanding cultural industries.
VANK also updated the map image. The previous Mercator-based map could give the false impression that Africa is much smaller than it is; editors replaced it and added an explanation that map projections can distort perceived area.
Earlier, in May, VANK analyzed biased Africa-related content in domestic textbooks and asked the Ministry of Education for corrections. In September of that year, 8 reviewed elementary social studies textbooks showed improvements in their descriptions.
Lee Se-yeon, a VANK young researcher who led the effort, said, “Africa has long been portrayed in a binary way — as a negative present or vague potential. This initiative establishes a foundation for recognizing the continent as an active, autonomous actor with diverse histories and contemporary realities.”
Park Ki-tae, VANK’s director, emphasized, “Much of the encyclopedia content was digitized from materials produced more than 20 years ago. Expressions that were not seen as problematic then remain in use today, so we need ongoing review and updates that reflect changes in the times.”
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