As Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge (Oliver Litondo) says in 'The First Grader,' a man who cannot read is no better than a goat. So, in this true story, as soon as Kenya offers free education to the children of the country, Kimani stands outside the remote one-room schoolhouse gate and waits to be allowed in. Kimani is 84 years old and seems to be literally on his last leg. Still, he is a stubborn man who has made up his mind -- education is so close he can hear it emanating from the nearby classroom, and he wants in. The school is already overcrowded and it's only for children who are considered the future of Kenya. But Kimani insists he must learn how to read. He has a letter he must read for himself. The sympathetic school teacher, Jane (Naomi Harris) allows him to sit among the children and learn. Trouble ensues and things even get violent, but Kimani holds fast.
We discover that Kimani has hard-earned experience in being stalwart in his convictions. Sixty years earlier, he was a Mau Mau warrior fighting for the independence of Kenya from the British -- a bloody insurrection that lasted eight years until the final withdrawal of the British from this former colony. The price Kimani and the other Mau Maus paid, as shown in graphic flashbacks, was unbearably horrible and high. He would not back down, relent or break his vow to liberate his country. And now it would seem the Kenyans of the 21st century would like to forget this heroic period of their history. It is also made clear that the British were as barbaric, cruel and inhuman as any other imperialistic rule or dictatorship. Now, in the progressive and independent Kenya of today, Kimani is only a bothersome old man who should quietly 'go home and rest in peace,' to which he angrily responds, 'I'm not dead!'
Two messages are relayed in this relevant, cinematically beautiful, and sensitively portrayed film: education, especially free education, is a vital gift to be treasured and a country's history and heroes should not be dismissed.
The First Grader
Director: Justin Chadwick
Writer: Ann Peacock
Cast: Oliver Litondo, Naomie Harris, Vusumuzi Michael Kunene
Time: 103 min.
Rated: PG-13
Opening May 20 at the Embarcadero Cinema in San Francisco
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