The soldier who fought for the right to move to school in Kenya (The First Grader Story)

Former Mau Mau freedom fighter Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge became eighty four when he first went to high school. Now, a brand new movie celebrates his marketing campaign to elevate the profile of primary education in Kenya

The venue for the film's premiere was a tent erected over the hard-packed earth of the school playground. Instead of a red carpet, there was a dusty green tarpaulin, and the white plastic chairs were a little unsteady. Two classrooms had temporary screens set up, with the rough-hewn wooden desks piled up outside, under a tree.

Never can an audience have been so riveted. For the children of the village of Kisames, in the Ngong Hills, an hour's drive south of Nairobi, the capital, this was the first sight of a screen. "Who has seen a movie before?" asked Justin Chadwick, the director, of the 200 or so youngsters. Not one hand went up. Though they were newcomers to cinema, the children from the Oloserian primary school had already taken a starring role in front of the camera – in the film that Chadwick had returned, a year after shooting, to screen. The First Grader, a remarkable new British film that has its UK premiere next week, is based on the true story of an unlikely African hero.

Maruge's tale became regarded through nearby after which international newspaper stories and he was invited to address the UN in 2005, in which he said the importance of education in Africa. He kept at his studies at the same time as he turned into burned out of his home during the election violence in 2008 and then identified with stomach cancer. Maruge died in a Nairobi nursing domestic in 2009.

"When human beings hear the tale, they're inspired. Maruge has brought many, many people into colleges in Kenya," stated Oliver Litondo, the Kenyan TV journalist-grew to become-actor who plays Maruge. "Every day he is inspiring Kenyans who had given as much as are trying to find what they want, age notwithstanding. Maruge has rekindled ambition in people who did now not suppose they still had it."

Thoma Litei, who missed out on college as a baby however enrolled at Oloserian at 19, is one of these people: "I heard they had been going to make a movie after which I heard approximately this man, the grandfather Maruge, so I knew it become now not too past due. I desired to read, and to realize more language, so I got here to analyze. That is why it's far essential for his tale to be known."

The Movie (The First Grader)

The First Grader is a 2010 biographical drama film directed by Justin Chadwick. It stars Naomie Harris, Oliver Litondo, and Tony Kgoroge. The film is based on the true story of Kimani Maruge, a Kenyan farmer who enrolled in elementary school at the age of 84 following the Kenyan government's announcement of free universal primary education in 2003.[1]

Plot

In 2003, a disc jockey announces over a Kenyan radio station that the government is offering free primary school education to all natives who can prove citizenship with a birth certificate. Kimani Maruge (Litondo), an 84-year-old villager, hears this and decides to take it upon himself to seek an education. Arriving at his local school, he meets Jane Obinchu (Harris), the principal and teacher. He expresses his desire to learn how to read. Her teaching colleague Alfred (Munyua), ridicules him and demands he leave. Later, Jane informs her husband Charles (Kgoroge) about Maruge. He discourages her in supporting his educational endeavor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Grader

The First Grader has already been well received, coming second in the People's Choice category at last year's Toronto International Film Festival. It is the inaugural feature-length production of Origin Pictures, set up by David Thompson, a former head of BBC Films.

With its themes of triumph over adversity, of the force and importance of education, and of how the value of people doesn't diminish in old age, The First Grader also touches on an airbrushed part of history – the cruelty of the British detention camps of the 1950s, where Maruge was held.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2011/jun/19/kenya-first-grader-education

Source : various relevant Wikipedia pages