He recalls the popular challenge now underway against Omar al-Bashir’s rule in Sudan; the deaths of Kofi Annan, the first African secretary General of UN, and Winnie Mandela, a flawed leader of the South African liberation movement; the highly positive emergence of the reform-minded Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian prime minister; and the international attention to Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege, who won a Nobel Peace prize for his work with rape victims.

Ten people who passed away this year who shaped world affairs for better or worse.

In an op-ed recently published in Foreign Policy, I write about the legacy of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the United Nations. Kofi Annan, who died last weekend, was arguably the most co…