Accra-Zurich-Accra

AFRICA

DESIGN

LIFESTYLE

FASHION

BEAUTIFUL AFRICA

CONGO

SOUTH AFRICA

CONGO

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THE BLACK VICTORIANS

(Late 1880s)

Alvan S. Harper (1847-1911) Collection Tallahassee State Library and Archives

(1899)

(Late 1880s)

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THE NAMIBIAN VICTORIANS

(Photography by Jim Naughten)

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SALUTE

The Movie

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KENYA

Kimani Ng'ang'a Maruge was the oldest person to start primary school—he enrolled in the first grade on January 12, 2004, aged 84.

Mr. Maruge attended Kapkenduiywo Primary School in Eldoret, Kenya; he said that he was prompted to enroll upon the government's announce-ment in 2003, of an universal and free elementary education.

In 2005, Maruge, a model student, was elected head boy of his school.

In September 2005, he would board a plane for the first time in his life, and head to New York City to address the United Nations Millennium Development Summit on the importance of free primary education.

During the 2007-2008 post-election violence, Mr. Maruge's property was stolen and he contemplated quitting school. But even living in a refugee camp in early 2008 (where he was reportedly a minor celebrity) which was four kilometers from his school, didn't stop the student from attending classes every day. He would be relocated later that same year to the capital Nairobi and forced to withdraw from school and move to a retirement home for senior citizens. However, soon after, Maruge enrolled once again into grade 6 at the Marura primary school.

Maruge was a widower, and a great-grandfather (two of his 30 grandchildren attend the same school). He was a combatant in the Mau Mau Uprising against the British colonizers in the 1950s and a straight A student.

Mr. Maruge died aged 90 on August 14, 2009 of stomach cancer, at the Cheshire Home for the Aged in Nairobi. He was buried at his farm in Subukia.

Mr. Maruge, I salute you!

GHANA

YOU BE SWEET OOHH...