Directed by Justin Chadwick and written by Ann Peacock, “The First Grader” is
set in a remote primary school in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province. It depicts the stir
Maruge created when, amid hundreds of children jostling for admission, he arrived
at the school, desperate to learn to read despite his age. Once he could read the Bible,
Maruge embraced Christianity, and was baptized before his death in 2009. The film
was released in New York and Los Angeles on 13 May.
According to a statement on the National Geographic Entertainment website,
Capella University will make a $0.50 donation – up to a total of $50,000 – to three
charitable organizations each time the movie’s trailer is viewed on YouTube. The
charities, which promote literacy and education around the world, include Reading is
Fundamental, the Minnesota based organization which provides free books to needy
children; Kenya’s Kakenya Center, which support underprivileged girls in the Maasai
community; and the South Sudan Institute, which trains teachers for early-childhood
learning.
Maruge, a veteran of the 1950s Mau Mau independence struggle, said reading would
clear up doubts about his preacher’s Sunday sermons. Maruge also wanted to write a
history of the struggle, and count compensation money he hoped to receive from the
British government for abuses he suffered during the turmoil. In 2004, the Guinness
Book of Records listed him as the world’s oldest pupil.
“I cannot understand why somebody should read the Bible for me and preach things
I don’t understand. I want to know how to read and write so that I can read the Holy
Book myself,” he told the Daily Nation in January 2004.
The Rev. Paulino Mondo, the Roman Catholic priest who baptized Maruge, said he
had an exceptional spirit. “At that age not many people would attend school…We
need to make sure what he inspired is propagated,” Mondo told ENInews.
