THE FIRST GRADER

UK/Kenya, 2010, 105 minutes, Colour.
Naomie Harris.
Directed by Justin Chadwick.

At first, we might think that his is a feelgood film. An old man hears that the Kenyan government states that all Kenyans have a right to free education. He applies but is rejected. He does not give up and a sympathetic teacher takes on his cause, battles for him. All that is in the film, but there is a lot more.

The First Grader states that it is based on a true story. It also gives information at the opening about the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s. This means that different audiences, especially for those who have a lived experience and memories of this period, will have different stances.

The film is very critical of the British, their occupation, colonial presuppositions, their military tactics against the Mau Mau, interrogation and torture. Kenya eventually achieved independence in the 1960s.

British residents and landowners who not only experienced dispossession but were the targets of savage violence will not look so benignly on this story of a former Mau Mau who had made the oath of loyalty to the movement and would not renounce it.

Another difficulty in Kenya was the tribalism – and, in recent years, has been shown to be still a difficulty. The Kukuku were the core of the Mau Mau and there are still conflicts between the Kukuyu and other tribes.

Outsiders who look back at the racial and colonial injustices in African countries (and Australia and Latin America) will see justice and injustice on both sides and will ask how to progress from this conflicted past.

Oliver Litindo plays the illiterate farmer, Maruge, portraying him in the vein of a rural Mandela. There are flashbacks to his torture and the death of his wife and children. He can also have his tough moments as the parents of children resent his taking up a scarce desk in overcrowded schools, the criticisms of the old idle men, the hostility of the adult men.

Naoemie Harris plays the sympathetic teacher, Teacher Jane, who takes Maruge in, coaches him, finds that he is a good influence on the children, encouraging them with their own language, with singing and dancing and the issues of freedom. Jane is married to a husband working in Nairobi in diplomacy. The Education Department is not helpful in Maruge’s case and an inspector is actively opposed and intrusive. The character of Jane is the ideal educator with a concern for justice. The fight for Maruge takes its toll on her life, her marriage and her career.

Evernutally, Maruge takes action himself, facing the Kenyan bureaucrats in their comfortable offices, with their suits and ties, reminiscent of their British predecessors.

The education situation reminds us of many other stories of teachers and classes but engagingly so. So are the bureaucratic struggles, but that means we are urged to feel the injustices. The characters may seem idealised or stereotyped, but the film is trying to makes its point through these confrontations.

Since the Kenyan situation, past and present, may not be familiar to many audiences, The First Grader offers an opportunity to remember, to face regrets, and to ask what are the best directions for the future. Maruge, before he died in 2009, addressed the United Nations on issues of education in Africa.
1. The film based on a true story? Kenya’s history in the 20th century? African history? Independence? Developments into the 21st century?

2. The Kenyan location photography, the countryside, the village, Nairobi?

3. The musical score, the moods, the African songs, the dancing?

4. The title, Maruge and his wanting an education, his experiencing the struggle, with the children, his achievement, speaking at the UN? His presidential letter and wanting to read it?

5. The background of the Mau Mau, the 1950s, the information given at the beginning of the film? The visuals of the Mau Mau, the taking of the oath, the young men, going into the homesteads, slaughtering and looting? The motives? The British and their reaction, the arrests? The prison camps, the torture, Maruge being hanged upside down, the renunciation demands, his wife being shot, the death of his children?

6. The film beginning as a nice school story, the old man and the sentiment, his arrival at the school, the possibilities of free education from the government, his claim? The crowd of parents, the heavy application for places? Their limitations? Jane and her staff? The refusal for Maruge?

7. Maruge in perspective, his role in the Mau Mau, the relationship of Africa with the West, the colonial powers, the movements for independence, the violence, the equivalent of a war, the abuses on both sides? Compensation?

8. Independent government, the new Kenyan governments and their bureaucracy, the similarities to the British? Respectability? Yet corruption? The succeeding generations of independent Kenyans and their ability to manage the country or not?

9. The issue of education, the children, hopes? The adults and the old men idle, the young men and brutality? The bored young people – going to discos? Not taking advantage of opportunities for education? The critique of old and young? The importance of morale?

10. Ordinary people in the village, the old men and their sitting idle, mocking Maruge? The shops and the violence? The mockers and their hostility?

11. Jane as a teacher, her background, educated? Her husband working in Nairobi and upper circles? Her kindness, her work, the lessons? Homework? The other members of the staff? The male member of the staff and his primness, severity and strictness? His reaction to Maruge? The young woman on the staff, more open? The mothers and their opposition? The throwing of stones? The husbands and the demonstration? The anonymous phone calls? Jane and her coping, the decision to go to Nairobi, meeting the officials, their rejections? Her relationship with her husband, his concern? The dominance of the African husband? The bureaucrat and his arrival, his rejection of Jane’s stances? The issue of the transfer? Her decision not to resign, to take a stance?

12. Her husband, being apart, the phone calls, the visit, the anonymous accusations about Jane and misbehaviour, his upset, his macho attitude tw his wife?

13. The background of tribal divisions in Kenya? The blame for the Mau Mau? The clashes and the references to past tribal clashes? The need for change?

14. The character of Maruge, his age, his experience, his willingness to learn, his letter and wanting to read it, in the classroom, forming the letters, with the other child and helping him form the number 5? With the children and singing, dancing, the issue of freedom? The hostile child? Being stoned? His discussions with Jane?

15. His decision to go to Nairobi, dressing up, the goat as payment, entering the building, his interview with the bureaucrats, his plea?

16. The media and the interest, going to the village, Maruge in town, the television interviewers and their intrusions? The posters with Maruge encouraging education?

17. The new teacher, the bureaucrat, the pomp and circumstance of her arrival? The young boy and his change of heart, leading the children in revolution? The demands for Jane?

18. Jane’s return, reading Maruge’s letter? The compensation from the government?

19. The disc jockey, the radio programs at the beginning, throughout, the end? His initial criticisms of Maruge? His change of heart?

20. The final information, Maruge and his going to the United Nations? President Obama – and the atmosphere of 2009?