A quick Internet search revealed that Maruge was the subject of both a documentary film and a feature film, The First Grader. A lifelong farmer, he attended school for three or four years, then was displaced from his village by unrest in the country. He found another school to enroll in and died of cancer at age 89 in 2009.
I also found someone who met Maruge in 2005 when he traveled around New York in a big yellow school bus, promoting education at the U.N. Millennium Development Summit. David Archer, at the nonprofit ActionAid, shared some memories.