Kofi Annan

Annan married a Nigerian woman Titi Alakija in 1965, but they later separated in the 1970s, and divorced in 1983. They have two children, Ama and Kojo, together. He later got married to Nane Lagergren, a Swedish lawyer. She has a daughter from a previous marriage.

Kofi Annan died on August 18, 2018, in Bern, Switzerland. He was 80.

Kofi Atta Annan and his twin sister, Efua Atta, were born to Victoria and Henry Reginald Annan in Kumasi, Ghana. Henry Reginald used to work as an export manager for the Lever Brothers cocoa company.

Both of his grandfathers and his uncle were tribal chiefs and he was raised in one of Ghana's aristocratic families.

He attended the elite Mfantsipim School, a Methodist boarding school from 1954 to 1957. It was here that he learnt "that suffering anywhere concerns people everywhere."

Ghana became the first British African colony to gain independence in 1957, the same year when Annan graduated from the Mfantsipim School. As a member of the generation that witnessed their country’s independence struggle and subsequent victory, he grew up thinking that everything was possible.

He joined the Kumasi College of Science and Technology in 1958 for a degree in economics. Receiving a Ford foundation grant enabled him to complete his undergraduate studies in economics at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1961.

Kofi Annan’s career with the UN began in 1962 when he joined as an administrative and budget officer with the World Health Organization in Geneva.

He took a short break from being an international civil servant when he worked as the director of tourism in Ghana from 1974 to 1976.

In the 1980s, Annan returned to work for the UN as an Assistant Secretary-General in three consecutive positions: Human resources management and security coordinator (1987-1990); programme planning, budget and finance, and controller (1990-1992); and peacekeeping operations (1993-1996).

Before becoming the Secretary-General, he also served as Under-Secretary-General.

His first five-year term as the UN Secretary-General began on 1 January 1997 when he replaced outgoing secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt.

As the Secretary-General of the UN, he launched the “Global Compact” campaign in 1999, which is the world’s biggest initiative for promoting corporate social responsibility.

Annan viewed the HIV/AIDS pandemic as his “personal priority”, and in April 2001, issued a “Call to Action”, proposing the establishment of a Global AIDS and Health Fund to help developing countries deal with the crisis.

After the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the US, he played a crucial role in stimulating the General Assembly and the Security Council to take actions for combating terrorism.

In 2005, he presented a progress report, ‘In Larger Freedom’, to the UN General Assembly in which he recommended a host of reforms to renew and strengthen the UN organization.