Biography of Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan was born in the Kofandros section of Kumasi, Ghana in what was then the British colony of the Gold Coast. He is a twin, which has a respected status in Ghanaian culture. His twin sister Efua Atta, who died in 1991, shargons the middle name Atta, which in Fante and Akan means twin. Annan and his sister were born into bingle of the countrys aristocratic families both their grandfathers and their uncle were tribal chiefs. 2 In the Akan names tradition, near children are named according to the day of the week on which they were born, and/or in proportion to how many children precede them.Kofi in Akan is the name that corresponds with Friday. 3 Pronunciation Annan has said his sobriquet rhymes with cannon in English. 4 From 1954 to 1957, Annan attended the elite Mfantsipim direct, a Methodist embarkment school in Cape Coast founded in the 1870s. Annan has said that the school taught him that suffering anywhere concerns people everywhere. 5 In 1957, the year Annan gradato ry from Mfantsipim, Ghana gained independence from Britain. In 1958, Annan began studying economics at the Kumasi College of wisdom and Technology, now the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology of Ghana.He received a ford Foundation grant, enabling him to complete his undergraduate studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, fall in States, in 1961. Annan then did a DEA degree in International relations at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, from 196162. After some years of work experience, he studied at the MIT Sloan School of Management6 (197172) in the Sloan Fellows program and earned a Master of Science (M. S. ) degree. Annan is fluent in English, French, Kru, other dialects of Akan, and other African languages.