The only problem is that the man, Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge, faced strong opposition to his plan. His teacher Jane (with a curiously South African sounding accent in the movie) championed the old man's right to learn to read and write - she too faced threats and abuse from local authorities and pressure from her husband to give up the old man as a lost cause. The sub plot is an exploration of the old man's personal demons from the past - he had been a Mau Mau freedom fighter and, once captured, was abused by the colonial officers who imprisoned him as a young man.