The microphone at David Kato's grave
At David Kato's grave, the pastor preached against homosexuality. His friends took the microphone away from him.
On 28 January 2011, David Kato was buried in the village of Nakawala in central Uganda. Two days earlier, the country's best-known gay activist had been beaten to death with a hammer in his home. Several hundred people came to the funeral. Many of his friends wore black T-shirts with his picture.
Kato had never hidden. As a teacher and later with the organisation Sexual Minorities Uganda, he fought against an increasingly hostile climate. In the autumn of 2010, the tabloid "Rolling Stone" printed the names and photos of alleged homosexuals and demanded that they be hanged. Kato's face was among them. He sued together with two fellow activists and won at the beginning of January. A few weeks later he was dead.
At the graveside there was an uproar. The pastor used his sermon to call on the mourners to repent, comparing them with Sodom and Gomorrah. He did not want to bless the dead man. That was too much. The activist Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera stepped forward and took the microphone from his hand. The mood turned, villagers sided with the pastor, and the police had to intervene.
Because the village did not want to accompany the coffin, Kato's friends carried it to the grave themselves. The final blessing was given by Christopher Senyonjo, an Anglican bishop whom his church had excluded because of his commitment to queer people.
The images went around the world. US President Barack Obama also honoured Kato as a courageous fighter for fairness and freedom. That same year, a young man was sentenced to thirty years in prison for the crime.
The pressure on queer people in Uganda has not eased since. In 2023, one of the harshest anti-homosexuality laws in the world came into force. Kato's funeral still shows today that grief can also be resistance.