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One-on-one with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

Ebony, Oct, 1998 by Kevin Chappell

West African diplomat gives color and credibility to top position at world peacekeeping Organization

The revving sound continues to reverberate in his head. And even now, Kofi Annan finds it hard to fathom why a gang of motorcycle-mounted photographers chased him through the streets of Florence, Italy, earlier this year. It's not like he was a movie star or a basketball icon--he was "only" the secretary-general of the United Nations on his way to church.

When did career diplomats become a part of the paparazzi's hit list anyway?

Well, they're not. But world heroes are. And although Annan denies that he has become a world hero, the first Black UN chief has become one of the world's most sought-alter personalities.

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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 of heads of state. And although the Iraq crisis continues to unfold, he is now known far outside the walls of the 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 students are choosing him as the subject of their current-events reports.

For Annan, it means no more solitary walks in the woods, no more indistinct travels around New York City, no more low-key visits to his West African homeland of Ghana. "Now those 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 regardless 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 truce in the 1949 Arab-Israeli conflict.

Like Bunche, Annan's keen negotiating skills have garnered global praise. Few gave Annan a chance when he left for Iraq in February with hopes of settling 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 of warships 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 criticized dictator. How could Annan--perhaps the most soft-spoken of the six previous secretary-generals--successfully negotiate with a man some considered to be mad?

But while others doubted him, Annan was optimistic. "In all the negotiations, 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 with results that are in the interest of the international 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 persistent. Otherwise, I will lose heart."

After days of negotiations with Hussein's underlings, it was heart that led Annan deep inside Hussein's palace bunker on the bank of the Tigris River, and it was heart that brought him out--three hours after meeting alone with the Iraqi leader--with a signed agreement in hand.

"We have been able to demonstrate that if given the chance the UN can make a difference between peace and war by what we did in Iraq," says Annan, who was praised for his ability to effectively handle the spectrum interests and egos that sabotaged previous negotiations. "Reaching an agreement was important in the sense that it demonstrated that diplomacy, handled carefully, 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 of the UN, it reaffirmed the role of diplomacy, and, personally, also gave me a chance to play a role."

In his wildest dreams, Annan never thought he would be playing such a role --leading the UN into the 21st century. He grew up in Ghana in the '50s, during a time when Blacks were struggling for basic human rights. The country had been under British rule for more than a century before protests and demonstrations by Blacks brought about its independence in 1957.

"There was a lot of political activity, and you could feel the political electricity. A lot of important changes were taking place," says Annan, who was raised in a prominent family, his father serving as the governor of the Ashanti Province and hereditary paramount chief of the 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 of colonialism, what independence meant. I grew up in an atmosphere that was politically aware and active."

One-on-one with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

Ebony, Oct, 1998 by Kevin Chappell

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