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He is the first black African to head the UN organization and was awarded the Nobel Prize.

International diplomat Kofi Annan of Ghana is the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), the multinational organization created to, among other things, maintain world peace. He is the first black African to head that organization and was awarded the Nobel Prize. Noted for his cautious style of diplomacy, Annan is sometimes criticized for his soft-spokenness, which some say may be mistaken for weakness.
A worldly scholar

Kofi Atta Annan was born in Kumasi, in central Ghana, Africa, on April 8, 1938. Since 1960 Ghana has been a republic within the British Commonwealth, a group of nations dependent on Great Britain. Named for an African empire along the Niger River, Ghana was ruled by Great Britain for 113 years as the Gold Coast. Annan is descended from tribal chiefs on both sides of his family. His father was an educated man, and Annan became accustomed to both traditional and modern ways of life. He has described himself as being "atribal in a tribal world."

After receiving his early education at a leading boarding school in Ghana, Annan attended the College of Science and Technology in the capital of Kumasi. At the age of twenty, he won a Ford Foundation scholarship for undergraduate studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he studied economics. Even then he was showing signs of becoming a diplomat, or someone skilled in international relations. Annan received his bachelor's degree in economics in 1961. Shortly after completing his studies at Macalester College, Annan headed for Geneva, Switzerland, where he attended graduate classes in economics at the Institut Universitaire des Hautes Etudes Internationales.
Early career

Following his graduate studies in Geneva, Annan joined the staff of the World Health Organization (WHO), a branch of the United Nations. He served as an administrative officer and as budget officer in Geneva. Later UN posts took him to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and New York City, New York. Annan always assumed that he would return to his native land after college, although he was disturbed by the unrest and numerous changes of government that occurred there during the 1970s.

Annan became the Alfred P. Sloan fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At the end of his fellowship in 1972, he was awarded a master of science degree in management. Rather than return to Ghana upon graduation, he accepted a position at the UN headquarters in New York City.
Work with the UN

In 1974 he moved to Cairo, Egypt, as chief civilian personnel officer in the UN Emergency Force. Annan briefly changed careers in 1974 when he left the United Nations to serve as managing director of the Ghana Tourist Development Company.

Annan returned to international diplomacy and the United Nations in 1976. For the next seven years, he was associated with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva. He returned to the UN headquarters in New York City in 1983 as director of the budget in the financial services office. Later in the 1980s, he filled the post of assistant secretary-general in the Office of Human Resources Management and served as security coordinator for the United Nations. In 1990, he became assistant secretary-general for another department at the United Nations, the Office of Program Planning, Budget, and Finance. In fulfilling his duties to the United Nations, Annan has spent most of his adult life in the United States, specifically at the UN headquarters in New York City.

Annan had by this time filled a number of roles at the United Nations, ranging from peacekeeping to managerial, and the 1990s were no different. In 1990 he negotiated the release of hostages in Iraq following the invasion of Kuwait. Five years later, he oversaw the transition of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) to the multinational Implementation Force (IFOR), a UN peacekeeping organization. In this transfer of
Kofi Annan. Reproduced by permission of Archive Photos, Inc.
Kofi Annan.
Reproduced by permission of
Archive Photos, Inc.
responsibility, operations in the former Yugoslavia were turned over to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

In recognition of his abilities, Annan was appointed secretary-general, the top post of the UN, by the UN General Assembly in December 1996. He began serving his four-year term of office on January 1, 1997. Joining him was his second wife, former lawyer Nane Lagergren of Sweden. She is the niece of the diplomat Raoul Wallenberg (1912–c.1947), who saved thousands of European Jews from the German Nazis during World War II (1939–45), when American-led forces fought against Germany, Italy, and Japan. Annan and Lagergren were married in 1985. The couple has one child.
Heading the United Nations

The post of secretary-general of the United Nations has been called one of the world's "oddest jobs." A

Notisha Massaquoi (panel), Aje Knight (audience), Reception, Queer Peers, a Human Rights Panel Discussion on International Transgender Politics,
An evening of Queer Expressions, Photos © Linda Dawn Hammond / IndyFoto.com and Pride Toronto 2009, Tuesday June 23, 2009,
Gladstone Hotel, Toronto

Moderator: Fred Kuhr
Panelists:
(L-R) Victor Mukasa, Susan Gapka, Erika Ayala, Evana Ortigoza , Notisha Massaquoi, Christine Decelles, N. Nicole Nussbaum

Global Trans Rights Activist Victor Mukasa from Uganda has been chosen as Pride Toronto's 2009 International Grand Marshal. Join us as we pay tribute to the brave queer activists fighting for their rights in Africa and specifically in Uganda. Come and hear Victor speak. As the 2009 International Grand Marshal, he proudly leads Toronto's Pride Parade on Sunday, June 28 at 2:00PM.

Victor Mukasa, Chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), 2009 Pride Toronto's International Grand Marshal: is the Chairperson of SMUG and a human rights defender for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender liberation in his home country of Uganda and across Africa. As a global trans rights activist, he strives to protect and defend the space to exit freely without harassment, threat, or violence and to change this world' traditional gender categories so that people are no longer punished for simply being who they are.

Victor Juliet Mukasa is a Ugandan transgender activist who has gained international recognition for bringing light to human rights issues globally. He is a TransLesbian working with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) as Research and Policy Associate for East, Central and Horn of Africa. Victor is a founding member of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), served as SMUG’s Chairperson from March 2004 to October 2007 and is now serving on the organizations Advisory Board. He’s also the Grand Marshall for Pride Toronto 2009.

N. Nicole Nussbaum, Barrister & Solicitor is an Employment and Human Rights Lawyer working with the Fred Victor Trans Employment Support Program. She represents both employees and employers on employment agreements, wrongful dismissal litigation, human rights complaints, employment and human rights trainings, corporate employment policy review and drafting, and other related services. Nicole transitioned from male to female in 2006.

Susan Gapka is committed to the empowerment of the marginalized community of transgender and transexual people through her dedication to social justice and her activism. She has been vocal in her lobbying the government for the rights of transpeople. Susan has won several awards for her work, worked on several committees, and facilitated many workshops and training sessions.

Notisha Massaquoi is originally from Sierra Leone and is the Executive Director of Women's Health in Women's Hands Community Health Centre (WHCHC). Her most recent publication is the edited anthology Theorizing Empowerment: Canadian Perspectives on Black Feminist Thought. She is the winner of the 2008 IRN-Africa Audre Lorde award for outstanding writing and she is currently working on a second collection of writing with Selly Thiam entitled, None on Record: Stories of Queer Africa. Her most recent work has been implementing transgender programming into the WHCHC.

Christine Decelles is a volunteer with PWA Speakers Bureau, and an active participant and advocate in the gay community and HIV/AIDS movement who has been living with HIV for 21 years. She has done volunteer work for 10 years at PASAN, working with people who are positive within the prison system. She is the chair of Ritten House, an agency dealing with transformative justice, and also a member of Voices of Positive Women. Christine is working hard to break down the stigma and discrimination around HIV, AIDS, transsexual and transgendered people.

Erika Ayala was born in Mexico City, and has been living as a female since she was 15 years old. She first immigrated to the United States where she lived for 10 years, before moving to Canada five years ago. Erika recounts her claim for refugee status, applying as a trans-person and experiencing trans-phobia. The Queer Refugee Experience in Canada

Evana Ortigoza is a Trans Sex Outreach Worker with TransPULSE and 519 Community Centre. She was born in Venezuela, immigrated to Canada in 1994, and danced with the National Ballet of Canada for 4 years. She also coordinates the weekly Meal Trans Drop-In for low income trans-people.