Items of Interest July 25, 2011 Issue

‘. . . So I can read the holy book myself’

Fredrick Nzwili

“Bible links literacy, film, and late learning in Kenya” Ekklesia May 29, 2011

A film about Kimani Ng’ang’a Maruge, an 84-year-old man who enrolled in primary school in 2003 so he could learn to read the Bible, has inspired the creation of an educational charity for underprivileged children around the world.

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 2011.

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