1938 — Kofi Annan, the Ghanaian Who Ran the World

On April 8, 1938, Kofi Atta Annan was born in Kumasi, in what was then the Gold Coast. He was a Friday-born boy, named Kofi in the Akan tradition. Rising from a United Nations desk in Geneva to Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, he climbed through the institution he would one day lead, step by step, from within its own ranks.

In 1997 he became the seventh UN Secretary-General, the first ever chosen from the organization's own staff. In 2001 he and the United Nations shared the Nobel Peace Prize. A boy from Kumasi had come to stand at the head of the world's table.