Kofi's Early Years in Ghana
Kofi, which means Friday, the day he was born, was part of an elite Ghanaian family. Born with a twin sister, Efua Atta, his full name is Kofi (Friday) Atta (twin) Annan. Both his mother and father are descendents of tribal chiefs from the dominant tribal groups in Ghana, his mother (Ruth) full Fante, and his father (Henry) part Fante and part Ashanti. In Ghanaian tradition, a man may take several wives and Kofi’s mother, not being the first wife, did not live with them and Kofi did not see her very often until he was older. Both Kofi's parents were Christian, yet they gave their children African names. In describing his father, Kofi Annan states, “To him, there was no contradiction in being African in identity and European in outlook . . . .”1
It seems that Henry Annan, despite his noble heritage, was not elected in the traditional manner as a chief, yet he was certainly a leader. His father was a top executive in the United African Company, a subsidiary of Lever Brothers, later known as Unilever, an Anglo-Dutch multinational. After independence in 1957, Henry was appointed as commissioner of the Ashanti region, an administrative position given to tribal leaders by the new government of Ghana.2 In this way his tribal leadership was acknowledged, though in a more modern manner by the central government, instead of by tribal elders.
With the United African Company, Kofi's father moved the family from region to region around Ghana as he became district manager in different parts of the country. In an interview, Kofi explains: "It was very interesting for me to grow up dealing with and getting to know so many different groups in Ghana. It gave you a sense of being able to relate to everybody and different groups at a young age."3 When Henry became director of the company, the family moved to the capital, Accra, and the household became a hub for political debate. "Local notables were forever dropping into the Annan household to ask advice or, increasingly, to talk politics. Kofi sat in the background, neither speaking nor expected to speak."4 Henry Annan became a leader in one of the parties that supported independence, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) but took a more moderate stance, advocating a gradual move toward independence.
Our house in these days became a gathering point for senior members of the UGCC – to the point where Nkrumah activists would hold rallies in the park across the street. As a young man, I was deeply influenced by discussions going on at home with my father and his friends. At the same time, I was emotionally drawn to the passion and urgency of Nkrumah’s calls for “independence now.”5
While Kofi's father was not a tribal chief, perse, it appears as though he operated as such and was given the respect accorded to a chief. In Ghanaian tribal tradition, and Ashanti law, the chief must peacefully resolve local disputes, listen to complaints and does not speak in a loud voice. Kofi Annan explains, “among Ashantis themselves there was an important priority placed on compromise and negotiation. Indeed, the Ashanti king did not have his own army, but had to convince tribes and subtribes to provide troops in times of war and crisis.”6 This sounds very familiar when thinking about Annan as Secretary-General of the UN, not having any troops of his own at his disposal. In his autobiography, Kofi describes his observations of his father in a way that profoundly reveals how Kofi Annan saw himself,
In this respect, my father was representative of a deeper cultural tradition of patience, negotiation, and reconciliation. For Ghanaians, the concept of the African palaver tree has always been a tangible part of our heritage, and a source of the relative peace and harmony among myriad tribes and religions. A place to meet and talk, to seek compromise and settle disputes, to bridge differences and foster unity – this was the meaning of the palaver tree.7
At all times, but particularly when resolving disputes, a traditional Ghanaian chief maintains a dignified, almost judgelike, repose. The chief then relies on a chief minister or spokesman, referred to as the linguist, to pronounce the judgment or give out any rebuke.8 Kofi's very dignified reserve appears to be shaped by the observations of this tradition passed down through his father.9 He also, by many accounts as Secretary-General, listened very attentively as others spoke, not only other leaders, but his own advisers. A close colleague of Annan's, Ibrahim Gambari, who served as his under-secretary-general for political affairs stated in an interview that Annan "listens to everybody, synthesizes, and makes his decisions. And we all respected him for that because we felt he listened to us."
Gambari goes on to explain further the role that African chiefs traditionally have had to develop as a manner of listening to their people, or as Gambari uses the term, the chief's subjects:
In traditional African society, the subject insists on being heard, so people don't realize it's not just that the kings or the chief had the luxury of not listening to his people. He had to listen to his people, absolutely, no hierarchies, no protocol; they insist on being heard. The wise chief, the wise, traditional ruler was one that listens to his people, gives guidance; he has to lead by example. African traditions are very democratic in nature. They talk all issues out, almost to exhaustion before consensus, reaching consensus, because that is the goal. Talk everything through, and the chief has to listen, has to be patient, and that's how you judge a successful, good leader.10
But Gambari, (from Nigeria) warns not to take that as essentially an African or tribal trait:
Obviously, we are all in many ways the product of our culture, but it was him [Kofi Annan] too and his family. Because there are also other African leaders who are not like that. I think it's something about his personality, about his values, about his upbringing, about his family, you know his family. There are some things that are common that you might consider African, but it is not common to all African leaders. On the contrary, I've seen many African leaders who don't like strong advisers, don't like strong characters, don't listen very carefully, do what they want, with literally no regard for the views of even their advisers, who they hire and fire at will. So, I think one has to give credit to him.11
Kofi Annan grew up in a well to do, stable family unit where he was absorbed into a transitional balancing of traditional tribal culture into the more modern industrialized culture that was growing in Ghana. His father was a symbol of that transition which combined both systems. A council of elders in the old system, as explained earlier, along with elite civic leaders in the modern system, would gather at his house discussing issues of the day. "Kofi once said he was brought up 'atribal in a tribal world.'"12 An old photograph of Annan's extended family shows most of the men wearing suites, while about half the women wore European dresses and the other half had African head ties and traditional African dress.13 While Kofi observed the dignified manner of his father and the Ashanti king who frequented their house, his father also diligently trained his children to "explain their behavior with honesty and confidence, without stuttering and shuffling."14 This training by his father would explain Kofi's composure and his ability to speak very clearly and to the point.
Another trait that seems to emerge from Kofi's Ghanaian background, and particularly the mood of his years as a teenager, is his continual optimism. Throughout his speeches, off-the-cuff comments, and press conferences, he often refers to being optimistic about an eventual positive outcome. In an interview with this author, Annan explains:
I've always been hopeful. I feel one can make a difference. I think it's also my own experience as a youth. I came of age in the years of African independence. Ghana was the first [Sub-Saharan] African colony to become independent, and I was a teenager. I was in my teens. When we got independence, with the struggle, watching it, I was eighteen, nineteen then. And so you live in a colony where the governor is an Englishman, the police commissioner is an Englishman, the headmasters of some of the schools are English, and the bank manager. The struggle for independence starts, and you follow it. My father was active even though he was not in politics. He knew most of the politicians. They would come home and they would be talking about changes, and the need for independence, and the pace at which one should push for it. So, as a boy, you listen to all this and it seems so far away when they are discussing it, how difficult and impossible. And then one day, this big exciting thing that everybody is fighting for, independence, is achieved. And in a way, you grow up thinking that change is possible, even a huge transformational change is possible because you've lived it and you've seen it. So I think in a way, I've always gone through life feeling that change is possible, and one should not give up; one should try.15
Kofi attended private schools in Ghana and those days left an impression on him. At fifteen he entered Mfantsipim, a prestigious, elite secondary school. Kofi often tells this story about his education in Ghana:
When I was a young man at the age of 15, I will never forget the experience I had with the headmaster who walked into a classroom. There were 45 of us. In those days, small classes were not the order of the day. You were lucky to get an education. So, there were 45 of us in the room, and he came in and put a sheet of paper on the wall with a black dot. The paper was quite white. It was about 1 meter by 1 meter with a dot. So, he asked, "Boys, what do you see?" Almost in unison, all of us shouted, "The black dot." He stood back and said, "So, none of you saw the broad, white sheet of paper. You all saw the black dot. Don't go through life focusing on the minor issue. See the total picture."16
This is a lesson that Kofi often mentions as having a profound effect on his thinking, focus on the big picture. For some students, this lesson may not have held any significance, but for Kofi, even more than 60 years later, he was still telling this story and framing it in such a way (at a press conference) as to ask others to also focus on the big picture, the total work that the UN tackles. Annan recalls another personal tale of his school years when asked if he ever had a nickname:
They used to call me Demo -- short for democracy. I grew up in Ghana [in West Africa] at the time the country was getting its independence [from Britain], and there were lots of discussions at school about political systems. I was always talking about democracy. There were two Annans at school, so they called me Annan Demo.17
Annan was clearly absorbing the political environment not only at school but at home and was showing very early on his interest in political affairs and the world. Kofi was sociable at school and is remembered for his sense of humor, but was not always compliant. Whether it was the developing resistance movement and growing demands for democratic participation that inspired the young Kofi, however, he organized and led a boycott at the school, demanding better food in the cafeteria. He even made sure that the boys had eaten before the boycott. The strategy worked and the menu was changed.18 What now appears odd, Annan was not considered a strong scholar by the head master and did not make a high enough score on his examinations for him to enter an academic college and instead he enrolled in the Kumasi Institute of Science and Technology. His leadership qualities were beginning to become apparent, nevertheless, and he was elected vice president of the Ghana national students’ union. This enabled him to attend a conference in Sierra Leone of African student leaders where he made an impression on a representative of the Ford Foundation, as mentioned, who offered him a scholarship to attend Macalester College in the United States. Growing up in the Annan family and attending private schools in Ghana, Kofi was already becoming Westernized but studying in the United States would profoundly shape his development.
Notes:
1. Kofi Annan with Nader Mousavizadeh, Interventions: A Life in War and Peace (New York: Penguin Press, 2012), page 15.
2. James Traub, The Best Intensions: Kofi Annan and the UN in an Era of American World Power, (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006), page 27.
3. Stanley Meisler, Kofi Annan: a Man of Peace in a World of War, (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2007), page 12
4. Traub, page 28.
5. Annan, page 19.
6. Ibid, page 20.
7. Ibid, page 21.
8. Captain R.S. Rattray, Ashanti Law and Constitution, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1929).
9. Of note is that according to Ashanti tradition, a chief and anyone in the presence of a chief must not cross his legs; in many of my meetings with Kofi Annan and observing him in other situations, he never crosses his legs, even while others in the room are doing so.
10. Interview with Ibrahim Gambari, by Jean Krasno, on June 3, 2009, at the United Nations in New York.
11. Ibid.
12. Meisler, page 11.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Interview with former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan by Jean Krasno, on Friday, March 21, 2008, in New York City.
16. Press Conference at the Japan National Press Club, January 24, 2001, in The Collected Papers of Kofi Annan: UN Secretary-General, 1997-2006, by Jean Krasno (editor), (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012), page 1356.
17. This interview with young people was published in the May 2001 issue of Nickelodeon Magazine, in The Collected Papers of Secretary-General Kofi Annan: UN Secretary-General, 1997-2006, by Jean Krasno (editor), (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012), page 1467.