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Kofi Annan biography

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Quick Facts

  • NAME: Kofi Annan
  • OCCUPATION: Civil Servant
  • BIRTH DATE: April 08, 1938 (Age: 75)
  • EDUCATION: University of Science and Technology, Macalester College, Institute for Advanced International Studies in Geneva, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • PLACE OF BIRTH: Kumasi, Ghana
  • Full Name: Kofi Atta Annan
  • ZODIAC SIGN: Aries

Best Known For

Kofi Annan is best known for his role as secretary-general of the United Nations.

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Synopsis

Kofi Annan was born into an aristocratic family in Ghana on April 8, 1938. He attended a number of schools and colleges, studying international relations in the United States and Switzerland, and 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.

Early Life

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 told The New York Times. "People of my generation, having seen the changes that took place in Ghana, grew up thinking all was possible."

Annan went on to pursue higher education, attending four different colleges: Kumasi College of Science and Technology, now the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology; Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota; Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland; and the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He earned a number of degrees, including a Master of Science, and studied international relations. Annan, whose native language is Akan, also became fluent in English, French, some Kru languages and other African languages.

Birth of a Career

Annan's career with the United Nations began in 1962, when he got a job working as a budget officer for the World Health Organization, a U.N. agency. Annan has been an international civil servant ever since, with the exception of a short break from 1974 to 1976, when he worked as the director of tourism in Ghana.

For a nine-year period from 1987 to 1996, Annan was appointed to serve as an assistant secretary-general in three consecutive positions: Human Resources, Management and Security Coordinator; Program Planning, Budget and Finance, and Controller; and Peacekeeping Operations. While he served in that last capacity, the Rwandan genocide took place. Canadian ex-General Roméo Dallaire, who has been the force commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda, accused Annan of being overly passive in his responses to the 1994 genocide. Some 10 years after the genocide, in which more than 800,000 people were killed, Annan admitted that he "could and should have done more to sound the alarm and rally support," according to a March 2004 BBC article.

Annan served as under-secretary-general from March 1994 to October 1995. He resumed the position in 1996 after a five-month appointment to serve as a special representative of the secretary-general to the former Yugoslavia.

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