Nane Maria Annan
Nane Maria Annan is the wife and now widow left by Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general.
Nane’s husband served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations and was the only black African to fill the role. He died ‘peacefully’ according to a statement from the foundation that bears his name. Kofi Annan was 80-years-old.
The Ghanaian diplomat served two terms as UN chief from 1997 to 2006, and was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work. He is credited with helping to revitalize the international body, during a period that coincided with the Iraq War and the HIV/Aids pandemic.
According to the Kofi Annan Foundation, Nane Maria Annan and his children were ‘by his side during his last days.’
Nane Maria Annan is his second wife, he was first married to Nigerian, Titi Alakija –with whom he fathered two children, daughter Ama and son, Kojo. Kofi and Titi were married from 1965 until 1983. The following year he tied the knot to Nane Lagergren.
Nane Lagergren born in 1944, is a former lawyer who worked at the U.N. –when she and Kofi met and fell in love. Like Kofi, she had been in a previous marriage and was divorced. From her previous relationship she is the mother of one daughter, Nina. The Swedish attorney and Kofi were married for 34-years.
Nane Annan happens to be the niece of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who helped thousands of Jews to escape from the Nazis during World War II and who disappeared mysteriously in Budapest as Soviet troops entered the city in 1945.
She graduated with a law degree in 1968 while studying in Stockholm. Following her graduation she took a job as assistant judge at the administrative and fiscal court of appeal. In 1981 she joined the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva as a legal officer.
Like her late husband, the ever elegant Nane Annan is pretty awesome in her own way. After her husband was first elected in 1996, she focused on women’s issues, programs designed to alleviate poverty, and the welfare of children, refugees and the disabled.
