Kofi Yamgnane

Kofi Martin Yamgnane (born 11 October 1945) is a French-Togolese politician and engineer.

Yamgnane was born in 1945 in Bassar, Togo. A member of the Ewe people, he attended a missionary school as his early education. In 1957, he enrolled at the St. Joseph College in Lomé, capital of Togo. Yamgnane received his baccalauréat in 1964. Afterward, he moved to France to study engineering. He obtained a degree in mathematics from the University of Western Brittany in 1969. Yamgnane obtained French citizenship in 1975. After years of doing engineering work without qualifications, such as designing expressway structures, he enrolled at the École nationale supérieure des mines de Nancy in 1977 and graduated in 1981.

In 1983, he joined the town council of a village of Brittany, Saint-Coulitz (less than 400 inhabitants). He lost the election for mayor in the second round as a member of the Socialist Party. He became well known in France in 1989 after being elected mayor of Saint-Coulitz, and at this time, one out of only two black mayors in Metropolitan France. He created a council of elders, similar to governing bodies in Africa. This initiative won Yamgnane the "National Award of citizenship" in April 1990, and he was named "Breton of the year" by Armor Magazine.

A former engineer in the French Bridges and Roads administration, he was Secretary of State of Integration in the French government from 1991 to 1993. The following year, he was elected a Conseiller général of Finistère. Yamgnane became a representative in the French National Assembly on 1 June 1997, representing Finistère. He was a member of the delegation of the National Assembly to women's rights and equal opportunities between men and women. Yamagnane served on several commissions in the Assembly, including national defense, trade, cultural affairs, finance, constitutional laws, marine transport safety, and children's rights. His term ended on 18 June 2002.

...
Wikipedia