We Mourn Not Kofi Annan, We Celebrate Him!

We are all black stars of Ghana in our various endeavours at home and abroad. We proudly fly the tricolour red, gold and green flag with the five-pointed black star crested at the centre of the gold band. School education taught us the star represents African emancipation in Theodosia Okoh’s design of thisnational flag inpan-African colours. But I believe the star symbolisesfar more than that, and evincesthe pride of blackachievement and excellence in African civilisations from the emergence of the hominids in the continent through the industry ofAksum and Kush to the gallantry of decolonisation and civil rights efforts plus more.

To keep the wheels of that pride turning we all work the daily grind in our little corners and fail and rise in manifest humanity while somecontinue to excel at it in ways that confound the naysayers of the prowess and aptitude of the black star. None other than the tough but soft-spoken diplomat called Kofi Atta Annan did the unparalleled in the field of international relations and diplomacy. He rekindled the flame of the African personality and obliged the world to beam the limelight of global interest and attention on Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghanawhen he became the emblem of the United Nations as Secretary General from 1997 to 2006. Sadly, we woke up to news on 18^th August 2018 that therole model and hero passed on at age 80 after a short illness.

Annan was the first of many firsts. The obvious was that he was the first sub-Saharan African to head the United Nationswhen he first took the oath of office on 1^st January 1997. His name and face gave instant visibility to country and continent for the next ten years that he was at the helm. Eternally one would say! But the man was not about physical presence and status. He represented the humility and service of the prince that he was in homeland Ghana. His compassion and sympathy for the poor in Africa and across the world rangendearingly genuine with civil society and civil society organisations. In his own words he ‘sought to place human beings at the centre of everything’ the UN did.

Annan was also the first Secretary General to rise to that apex position from within the ranks of the UN. Boutros Boutros-Ghali who was the immediate past Secretary General was his country’s Foreign Minister before, and although some earlier predecessors were career diplomats in their own right, none was an international civil servant at the world governing body. Annan was the one most in tune with the inner workings of the UN and arguably the one who knew the strengths and how to improve them as well as the failings and how to fix them. It is no wonder that one of the achievements he is well acclaimed for is reform of the organisation.

The UN had archives of massive declarations and long speeches. Annan had no patience for further rhetoric. What he wanted most was global action on freedom to live in dignity and the freedom from want andfear. Call it human security for short as in parlance of International Relations Studies. For Annan, the mission of the UN was always peace in a secure world for all including very ordinary people in society. And for that, the scourge of international terrorism and HIV/AIDS in Africa were that intolerable the world could not sit by. He made no hesitation in reminding world leaders of their billing and he often did so at the peril of irritating some veto powers in the Security Council.

The greatness of Annan partly derived from this incredible humanity to concede failures with remorse and say never again with resolve. Having worked the UN mill for decades, he served in many capacities in the run up to being crowned organisational head. Of all of them, his tenure as Under-Secretary General in charge of Peace Keeping Operations harrowed. Under his watch, or the watch of the UN for that matter, the world witnessed horrors of genocide in Rwanda and massacres of Muslims in Srebrenicawhile the UN stood idly by. These two tragedies shook him to the core and would greatly inform and shape his vision of world peace and exasperation with war and war mongering when he assumed the reins of the organisation.

Born a twin with Efua Atta on 8^th April 1938,Annan attended the elite Mfantsipim Secondary School in Cape Coast and graduated in 1957. That graduation coincided with the independence of Ghana and made him as much a victim of colonial exploitation as a subject of the promise of independence. Annanelected being guided by the promise and headed to the Kumasi College of Science and Technology, which later became the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. While there, he earned a scholarship to study Economics at Macalester College in the USfrom where he pursued further studies at the ivy Graduate Institute of International and Development Studiesin Geneva and Massachusetts Institute of Technology back in the US.

By the time he began his career in international relations and diplomacy in 1962 Annan was well equipped with the education required for the complexities of the form, scope and intensity of operational activity in the field. And by the time he was Secretary General, he knew without saying that the denial of the dignity of one man could jeopardise the security of a nation, and the insecurity of one nation could endanger the peace of the world. There was no if and but about it or what needed doing. The values of the UN are enshrined in a ‘we the people’ preamble, and for ‘we the people’ he dedicated himself entirely to work for peace and security in a fairer world.

In recognition of his sterling stewardship Annan jointly won the Nobel peace prize with the UNin 2001. When he exited on 31^st December 2006 he left behind an organisation that emphasised human rights more than ever before, a UN more robust in its engagement with peacekeeping and aworld bodymuch more adapted to the challenges of poverty and international terrorism. I imagine Theodosia Okoh was deliberate in her design of the Ghana flag to showcase our rich mineral deposits in the middle band,but I also want to believe she wanted toproclaim the golden background of the African personality when she placed the black star at the centre of it.

Annan is evidence of that fine imagination and one of the few whofits the shoe without need for socks. And if heroes die standing, he did. At 80 hehad not retired from public service. He was not only running a foundation dedicated to peace, development and human rights, he remained committed to the African cause for which he expended time and energy on the transformation of agriculture in the continent. Healso sat and chaired the forum called The Elders initiated by Nelson Mandela of South Africa to support peace building and shared interests in humanity.

No! We need not mourn the deaf of this consummate black star and international diplomat. Even as I write I know Kofi Atta Annan is seated at the high table of a welcome party hosted by the cream of great African ancestors.Let us celebrate his life instead and,if anything, let us fly his legacy and learn to walk in the giant footprints he left behind in gold.Let us find value in peace and security and end conflicts in his name, let us say no to mal-governance for once and for good, let us put a full stop to the rule of strong men and end human rights abuses, and let our governance be guided by rule of law and of building strong and effective institutions throughout Africa. Finally, let us make that imperativeresolve to end the back-breaking methods of peasant farming, and revolutionise our agriculture for sustainable food production and food security in country and continent. The technology is out there;let us not fail ourselves with want of will power.We are black stars after all, aren’t we?

The Writer is Freelance International Relations Analyst and Political Commentator on African affairs