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Kofi Annan

(1938-2018)

Who Was Kofi Annan?

Kofi Annan was born into an aristocratic family in Ghana and he attended a number of schools and colleges, studying international relations in the United States and Switzerland. He became an international civil servant working for the United Nations in 1962. He went on to become the U.N. secretary-general and later a special envoy to Syria. Annan died on August 18, 2018 in Switzerland at the age of 80.

Early Life and Education

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Atta Annan was born within minutes of his twin sister, Efua Atta, on April 8, 1938, in Kumasi, Ghana. The grandchild and nephew of three tribal chiefs, Annan was raised in one of Ghana's aristocratic families.

In his mid-teens, Annan attended an elite Methodist boarding school called Mfantsipim, where he learned that "suffering anywhere concerns people everywhere." Upon Annan's graduation from the school in 1957, Ghana gained independence from Britain; it was the first British African colony to do so. "It was an exciting period," Annan once t

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Kofi Atta Annan, born on April 8, 1938 in Kumasi, Ghana, served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) between 1997 and 2006. He was the first person of African descent to hold that post. Annan grew up in Kumasi but attended Mfantsipim School, an elite boarding school in Cape Coast. He graduated in 1957, the year Ghana gained its independence. Annan attended Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, graduating in 1961 with a degree in economics. He then completed graduate level work, also in economics, at the Institut universitaire des hautes études internationales in Geneva, Switzerland from 1961 to 1962. Annan returned to the United States and earned a Master’s of Science in management in 1972 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Annan fluently spoke French, English, and a number of African languages.

Kofi Annan joined the United Nations in 1962 when he went to work for the World Health Organization (WHO) as a budget officer. Afterwards, he was involved with the United Nations in a number of different branches, including serving

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Kofi Annan: Former UN chief and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

AFP

It was at his elite boarding school in West Africa that Kofi Annan - the man who would later become the world's top diplomat - learnt one of his most important lessons.

It was, he said later, "that suffering anywhere concerns people everywhere".

The idea seems to have inspired Annan throughout a life which saw him play a key role in the crises which have shaped the world, from the HIV/Aids pandemic, to the Iraq War and, latterly, climate change.

His humanitarian work would win him a Nobel Peace Prize, but it would also win him a raft of critics.

Annan, the first black African to lead the United Nations, would nonetheless became one of the most enduring and recognised diplomats in modern history.

Changing times

Kofi Atta Annan and his sister, Efua Atta, were born in the city of Kumasi in what was then Gold Coast in April 1938. The twins' first names meant "born on a Friday" in Akan, while their shared middle name means "twin".

He grew up in a wealthy