Dear Maruge: A Suggested Counter-narrative for Adult Learning in The First Grader
Introduction
The film, The First Grader (Chadwick, 2010), attempts to tell the story of an elderly Kikuyu man’s pursuit of English literacy through a newly-offered, free formal primary education program offered by the Kenyan government. The movie portrays this man’s character, culture and village through a Western hegemonic lens in which Eurocentric (or Western) education is the white savior for the genericized people of Kenya presented as poor, primitive and uneducated. One example of misrepresentation of these people is the depiction of the Kikuyu village which is portrayed as the ramshackle housing of a destitute community, yet the Kikuyu people of Kenya often live in the meticulously constructed circular huts based on complex geometry depicted here:
The portrayal of this man’s education is based on stereotypes and a Western paradigm as the right one. I believe Critical Theory would be a better framework through which to construct this man’s learning experience. Before I elaborate though, I must state that, like Justin Chadwick, the director, I am white. So while I can empathize with the characters in this film, “I in no way enter their worlds” (Brookfield, 2014, p. 23). What I will attempt to do is centralize the intersectional identity of the main character, Kimani Ng’ang’a Maruge, within the context of his adult learning rather than assimilating him into dominant Western pedagogy as the film does.
Demarginalization Through Critical Theory
According to Kilgore (2001), “Critical theorists argue that structures of privilege and oppression based on categories like race or ethnicity, gender, class, sexual orientation, physical or mental capability, and age are reinforced because the logic that maintains those structures becomes a common-sense lens through which people view and interpret their everyday experiences” (p. 55). The producers of The First Grader (Chadwick, 2010) perpetuate this privileged and oppressive framework by reinforcing media stereotypes of Africans as culturally undifferentiated, primitive, poor, and uneducated (Nothias, 2016) and imply that they need to be saved through English literacy learned in a Western curricular format. In my opinion, this is ironic because through colonialization and the imposition of the English language upon Africans, indigenous cultures were lost or transformed, a kind of homogenization in its own right that may have led, and likely still leads, to impoverishment and other negative outcomes. Teju Cole (2012) captures this notion of cultural appropriation that elevates the oppressors in the Tweet below.
It is through this hegemonic lens that we learn about Maruge, the generic object to be imprinted upon with Western education with no regard for his subjective intersectional experience as an adult learner who is African, Kenyan, a member of the Kikuyu tribe, and of an advanced age. The film assimilates Maruge to Western positionality through manner of dress, classroom format, and the curriculum used for primary education. According to Fean (2012), “Indigenous knowledges are frequently marginalised by hegemonic knowledge and ways of knowing, such as through education processes, in which dominant knowledge and culture is reproduced (pp. 683–684). As an alternative, Critical Theory would empower Maruge to draw upon his intersectionality and to learn within a context that utilizes, not disposes of, his cultural knowledge and experience. For example, he is taught to read using textbooks, paper, pencils and other documenting materials that are relevant to formal learning in a Western educational setting like the United States. Merriam, Caffarella and Baumgartner (2007) posit though that African culture and thought are based more on orality and communal meaning making. Maruge, then, is not only challenged with learning to read, he must learn to do it using a Western approach that is culturally unfamiliar. Thus, if he struggles, he may be perceived as incapable or unintelligent rather than needing to be taught in culturally relevant and familiar ways. Of note, when Maruge informally engages a child who is struggling with forming the number five correctly, he effectively uses an African saying to explain and draw the number in the dirt with his walking stick. The successful outcome for the boy is interesting considering that Maruge is still struggling with English fluency at the end of the film.
Maruge is motivated to learn to read in the first place because he has received a letter in English from the government related to reparations from his wrongful imprisonment after the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s (Chadwick, 2010). Critical Theory helped me to challenge the hegemonic necessity of Maruge’s English literacy as the “right” ways and in the best interest of Maruge (Merriam & Bierema, 2014). I will use a critical approach in the next section to construct a different learning experience for Maruge that capitalizes on his intersectionality to achieve the outcome of learning the contents of the letter while disposing of the English literacy/Western education as savior narrative.
Learning From the Letter, Not the Letters
Maruge is an elderly man with a wealth of agricultural knowledge that is alluded to throughout the film, albeit during silent montages (Chadwick, 2010). He is also someone who has been severely traumatized by British colonization that led to the usurping of his and other Kenyans’ rich land, the murder of his wife and children, and his subsequent imprisonment for his role in the Mau Mau uprising to repossess the land. Maruge has one goal which is to be able to ascertain from the letter he received how the government will make reparations for his losses. Similar to Ivan Illich’s position as presented in Ladislaus Semali’s chapter in Abdi and Kapoor (2009) “that for most people the right to learn is curtailed by the obligation to attend school” (p. 42), I would argue that Maruge’s right to learn the contents of the letter should not require a formal Western education or English literacy at all lest he be further subjugated to hegemonic power. In her 2017 TedTalk below, Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu reflects on her formal English education stating, “I had identity crises. I looked down on my reality. I looked at my ancestry, I looked at my lineage with disrespect. I had very little patience for what my life had to offer around me.” I wish Maruge had not been subjected to a similar experience of learning English.
A more appropriate learning experience would be one in which his “knowledge is socially constructed and takes form in the eyes of the knower, rather than being acquired from an existing reality that resides ‘out there’” (Kilgore, 2001, p. 53). For Maruge, this should incorporate his identity as a Kenyan, but more importantly as an elder member of the Kikuyu people. The Kikuyu are the largest ethnic population in Kenya and their language is second only to Swahili (“Kikuyu,” n.d.). In Mazrui (1993), the Kikuyu author, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who wrote almost exclusively in his native language, is said to have concluded that, “the domination of a people’s language by languages of the colonising nations was crucial to the domination of the mental universe of the colonized” (p. 352). Thus, the letter to Maruge in English could be considered yet another form of colonization and an exertion of power. What I would envision for Maruge instead is that he travel to Nairobi similarly to what he did in the movie, except this time, he should demand that he receive the information from the government in the Kikuyu language. It would enable him to subvert the power in this learning experience and become emancipated by the information (Kilgore, 2001). This learning experience would begin to help to make Maruge whole in terms of his cultural identity, his suffering and the restoration of power over his own destiny.
What’s left to learn?
The depiction of the little boy in the film who has difficulty drawing the number five correctly made me think of two of my three children who learn differently; one has dyslexia and ADHD and the other has dyslexia and dyscalculia. This, in turn, made me think of an area that might benefit from more coverage in this course: learning differences. There are adult learners who are dyslexic; autistic; seeing, hearing and speech impaired; dyscalculic; physically disabled; and otherwise intellectually disabled for whom adult education is needed throughout the lifespan. This area is only covered very briefly though in Chapter 10 of Merriam and Bierema in the context of technology as a learning tool. While I agree that technology is an important aspect of adult learning, it is just one small way to address the broader learning needs of these populations. For example, there are transitions from dependent to independent living that require learning by both the individual who learns differently as well as their parents or caregivers. There is also a need to better understand how to accommodate learning through additional time and alternative methodologies. Further, in my opinion, “normal” adult learners need to understand how people learn differently so that they can be more critical of their own assumptions and actions that are harmful to those who learn differently. (1,463)
References
Harding, R. (Producer), Feuer, S. (Producer) & Thompson, D. (Producer). Chadwick, J. (Director). (2010). The First Grader [Motion Picture]. United Kingdom, United States, Kenya: BBC Films and the UK Film Council.
Brookfield, S. (2014). Racializing the discourse of adult education. International Journal of Adult Vocational Education and Technology, 5(4), 20–41.
Kilgore, D. W. (2001). Critical and postmodern perspectives on adult learning. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 89, 53–61.
Nothias, T. (2018) How Western Journalists Actually Write About Africa, Journalism Studies, 19:8, 1138–1159, DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2016.1262748
Teju Cole. (8 Mar 2012). 2- The white savior supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening. [Twitter Post]. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/tejucole/status/177809558608150529?lang=en
Fean, P. (2012). Learners’ cultures as ‘knowledge’? Sudanese teachers’ perceptions of cultures and languages in adult education. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 42:5, 683–701, DOI: 10.1080/03057925.2012.706451
Merriam, S. B. & Bierema, L.L. (2014). Adult learning: Linking theory and practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Merriam, S. B., Caffarella, R. S., & Baumgartner, L. (2007). Learning in adulthood: A comprehensive guide (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Ch. 9 Learning and knowing: Non-western perspectives.
Kapoor, D., & Abdi, A. A. (2009). Global perspectives on adult education: African, Asian and Latin American perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan.
Ezeanya-Esiobu, C. (August 2017). How Africa can use its traditional knowledge to make progress [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/chika_ezeanya_esiobu_how_africa_can_use_its_traditional_knowledge_to_make_progress/footnotes
Mazrui, A. (1993). Language and the Quest for Liberation in Africa: The Legacy of Frantz Fanon. Third World Quarterly, Vol. 14, №2 . pp. 351–363. Taylor & Francis, Ltd.