UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

1. First Black secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan has
become one ofthe most recognizable figures in world diplomacy since
he persuaded Iraq's Saddam Hussein (below) to agree to a settlement
that avelted a major international clisis. At a White House news con­
ference, Aimall alld President Clinton (left) field questions.
EBONY • October 1998 Continued on Page 1.38

2. Touching bases with major world leaders, Annan confers with u.s. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (left), who is the fonner U.S. ambassador to
the UN. At right, Annan meets with South African President Nelson Mandela.
UNCHIEF Continued
Since persuading Iraq's Saddam
Hussein to agree to a settlement that
averted a major international crisis,
interest in Annan's position has reached
far beyond the handshakes ofheads of
state. And although the Iraq crisis con­
tinues to unfold, he is now known far
outside the walls ofthe palaces, estates,
castles and compounds that bound
his predecessors.
Today, he is recognized wherever he
goes. Mamas and daddies now want his
autograph for their children, wives of
servicemen want to hug him, grandmas
want to kiss him, and-perhaps the
most telling sign that his life has
changed forever-grade-school stu­
dents are chOOSing him as the subject
of their current-events reports.
For Annan, it means no more soli­
tary walks in the woods, no more indis­
tinct b·avels around New York City, no
more low-key visits to his West African
homeland ofGhana. "Nowthose days are
gone," Annan says resigningly as he sits
in his office atop the UN's New York
City headquarters. "My life changed
when I became secretary-general. And
since Iraq, one is easily recognized re­
gardless of where one is.. .It's a new
experience for me."
Annan follows in the footsteps of
such Black diplomatic giants as Ralph
Bunche, a former Howard University
professor who helped organize the UN
in 1945 and served as the organization's
undersecretary-general. Bunche was
awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1950
for successfully negotiating a historic
138
truce in the 1949 Arab-Israeli conflict.
Like Bunche, Annan's keen negoti­
ating skills have gamered global praise.
Few gave Annan a chance when he left
for Iraq in February with hopes of set­
tling a disagreement over the search of
eight Iraqi sites for weapons.
Preparing for a U.S.-led military
strike, President Bill Clinton had
ordered the positioning ofwarships in
the Persian Gulf. Missiles were aimed.
Targets locked in. Iraqi women and
children had taken shelter, expecting
showers of missiles to rain down on
them at any moment.
With neither side budging, Annan
headed to Baghdad to meet with
Saddam Hussein, the world's most clit­
icized dictator. How could Annan-per­
haps the most soft-spoken ofthe six pre­
vious secretary-generals-successfully
negotiate with a man some considered
to be mad?
But while others doubted him,
Annan was optimistic. "In all the nego­
tiations, I try to go into it with positive
expectations that I'm going to give it my
best, and try to come out of it "vith
results that are in the interest of the
intemational community," he says with
a calm so cool that it comes across as
complete confidence. "In my job, I
need to be optimistic, hopeful and per­
sistent. Otherwise, I will lose heatt ."
After days of negotiations with
Hussein's underlings, it was head that
led Annan deep inside Hussein's palace
bunker on the bank ofthe Tigris River,
and it was head that brought him
out-three hours after meeting alone
with the Iraqi leader-with a Signed
EBONY • October
agreement in hand.
"We have been able to demonstrate
that if given the chance the UN can
make a difference between peace and
war bywhat we did in Iraq," saysArman,
who was praised for his ability to effec­
tively handle the spectrum interests and
egos that sabotaged previous negotia­
tions. "Reaching an agreement was
impOltant in the sense that it demon­
strated that diplomacy, handled careful­
ly, and backed up with fairness and the
threat of force, can make a difference.
That war would have been devastating
for the entire region. So I'm proud of
that achievement because it reaffirmed
the position ofthe UN,it reaffirmed the
role of diplomacy, and, personally, also
gave me a chance to playa role."
In his wildest dreams, Annan never
thought he would be playing such a role
- leading the UN into t..he 21stcentury.
He grew up in Ghana in the '50s, dur­
ing a time when Blacks were struggling
for basic human rirrhts. The countryhad
been under British rule for more than
a century before protests and demon­
strations by Blacks brought about its
independence in 1957.
"There was a lot of political activity,
and you could feel the political elec­
tricity. A lot of impOltant changes were
takingplace," says Annan,whowas raised
in a prominent family,his father serving
as the govemor ofthe Ashanti Province
and hereditary paramount chief of Lne
Fante people. "The students and young
people were very much aware and very
engaged. We used to debate in schools,
talk about the changes, the end ofcolo­
nialism, what independence meant. I
1998 Continued on Page 3.40

3. UN CHIEF Continued
grew up in an atmosphere that was
politically aware and active."
Annan expedenced the same activist
atmosphere when he moved to the
United States in 1959 to attend college.
Enrolled in Minnesota's Macalester
College on a Ford Foundation scholar­
ship, he saw a similar freedom move­
ment unfolding in America. "Blacks
here were going through the same
things that we had been through," he
says. "So I knew what was happening."
He graduated in 1961 with a de­
gree in economics, and received a
master's degree in management from
140
MIT in 1972. By then, he had begun
his career at the UN, where, outside of
a break in the mid-'70s when he went
back to Ghana, he has worked for the
last three decades. DUling his 33-year
stint at the UN, Annan held positions
as personnel director, budget director,
comptroller and undersecretary of
peacekeeping operations.
As undersecretary, Annan was given
high marks for his practical approach to
carrying out a number of sensitive
diplomatic assignments, including the
negotiation of the release of Western
hostages in Iraq following that counbis
invasion of Kuwait in 1990. In less than
five years, Annan transformed what was
EBONY • October
a tiny peacekeeping office into a divi­
sion of the UN that was managing
75,000 troops from more than 70 coun­
tdes on 19 separate missions.
But even with all of his achieve­
ments, succeeding Egypt's Boutros
Boutros-Ghali to become secretary­
general last year came as a surprise to
Annan. "I could never have guessed
it. Even joining the UN was an acci­
dent. I thought I would stay with the
UN for about two years and go back to
Ghana and work there," says Annan,
whose fluency in English, French and
several African languages helped him
move up the ranks at the UN. "But I
could never have dreamt that I could
have become the secretary-general,
even though in career terms I had
done quite well and moved up. But no
staff member, no member of the sec­
retariat had ever become secretary­
general, so that was something that
was really not in the plans. It hap­
pened suddenly and it was a sur­
prise."
When Annan became secretary­
general, he and his wife, Nane Lager­
gren, moved from their middle-class
home on New York City'S Roosevelt
Island to the secretary-general's offi­
cial residence on posh Sutton Place on
the other-{lJld more expensive-side
of the Hudson River.
For lunch, A.'1llan is usually whisked
away- in a police-escorted annored
Mercedes-to his nearby estate home
for a quick meal vith his wife. On nice
days, the couple eats in the garden.
There's a deafening quietness that
fills the home, the only noise being the
intermingling of her Swedish accent
with his West Afdcan dialect.
1998 Continued on Page 142

4. Looking to the future, Annan greets schoolchildren visiting the UN's New York City headqmuters. He has brought a more open, relaxed style of lead­
ership to the organization's top post. African-American diplomat Ralph Bunche, the first Black Nobel Peace Prize winner, helped organize the UN.
UN CHIEFContinued
It's just the two of them. It's been
that way since their son and two daugh­
ters (from previous maniages) grew up
and moved out. It's the second marriage
for Annan, whose maniage to his first
wife, a Nigerian, ended in divorce.
Those close to the couple repOlted­
ly say that the two are soul mates. Both
love to travel, read, take long walks in
the woods, and share other interests.
The two usually travel to Ghana every
other year. "You miss friends, you miss
family," the secretary-general says ofhis
homeland. "Now when I go home, the
private moments you spend with them
are diminished. You miss that."
Nane Lagergren is a lawyer-turned­
artist, and the niece of the late Swedish
diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, a World
War II hero who disappeared in a Soviet
pli son after saving 20,000 Hungalian
Jews from the Nazis.
On this day, the two discuss Kofi
Annan's work schedule, which typical­
ly includes hosting foreign dignitalies,
and attending a host of council meet­
ings, special sessions, ceremonies and
receptions.
But most days aren't typical. Annan
usually finds himself putting out fires,
either internally at the UN, or interna­
tionally from the seemingly daily con­
flicts that mise across the world.
From India's nuclear testing to the
continued sbife between Israel and
Palestine, and conflicts in Burundi,
Afghanistan, Somalia and Rwanda,
Annan and the UN have, and will con­
tinue to have, their plates full. "We are
trying to resolve quite a few crises
around the world," Annan says. "After
the Cold War we knew we were going
to go through a peliod of adjustment
and destabilization, but the past year
has been incredible. The number of
clises which has exploded around us
has kept the organization extremely
busy and also underscored the point
that the UN is needed today perhaps
more than ever."
Annan's election to a five-year term
was spurred largely by the United
States' dissatisfaction with Boutros­
Ghali. Congress was so upset with the
performance of the UN that during
the past decade, it has sporadically
withheld payment of its yearly dues to
the organization.
As UN leadel; Annan's first goal has
been to attempt to restore credibility to
the organization. He has bimmed the
UN's staff of 9,000 civil servants work­
ing around the world, and re-focused
its mission. His goal: Convince the
185-member states that the UN can
work. "I think it's gone quite well," he
says. "It's been quite a tough peliod. We
have been able to push the refonn agen­
da very aggressively."
Annan hopes bettennent of the UN
and successful peacekeeping missions,
like his negotiations coup in Iraq, will
convince the United States to pay its past
debt, now totaling about $1.5 billion.
Successful in pumping credibility,
life and color into a previously lacklus­
ter UN, Annan is looking fOlward to the
challenges that lie ahead, and under­
stands how important his success is to
Black people worldwide.
"I laio" that my position and my role
is an inspiration to most of the people
on the continent [of Afiica] and Black
people everywhere," he says. ''I'm con­
scious of the fact that I'm seen as a role
model a11d that what I'm doing is inspir­
ing quite a lot of young people not to
put any limitations on their own dreams
and on their own ambitions. I'm happy
that I'm able to inspire them that way,
to really aim high and live their lives to
the fullest without any inhibition about
what they can do or be allowed to
do.. .Eleanor Roosevelt once said, 'No
one can make you feel infelior without
your pennission.' Those are words to
live by." 0
EBONY • October 1998142