Despite having what he once called a deeply unfortunate name for a public official, a Namibian politician formerly known as Adolf Hitler Uunona has secured reelection to his council seat for the fifth consecutive time, reportedly winning again on Wednesday, Nov. 26.
The 59-year-old leader, who has represented the Ompundja area in Namibia’s Oshana Region since 2004 as a member of the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), announced that he is formally dropping the infamous dictator’s surname.
Speaking with The Namibian newspaper, Uunona explained that he wants to distance himself from the name his father chose without fully understanding who Adolf Hitler was or the atrocities he committed.
“My name is not Adolf Hitler,” he told The Namibian. “I am Adolf Uunona. In the past, people have called me ‘Adolf Hitler’ and tried to associate me with someone I don’t even know.”
He said he has already removed “Hitler” from his Namibian identity documents because it does not reflect his character or his beliefs, and he now wishes to be addressed simply as “Adolf Uunona.”
Following his 2020 reelection, Uunona spoke to German newspaper Bild to make it clear that he shares nothing with the Nazi leader beyond the former name — especially not ambitions of conquest or domination. “As a child I saw it as a totally normal name,” he said, noting that his wife has always called him Adolf. “It wasn’t until I was growing up that I realized: This man wanted to subjugate the whole world. I have nothing to do with any of these things.”
Even back in 2004, when he first won his council seat under SWAPO — the party that has governed Namibia since its independence in 1990 — his name was already proving to be a political burden. “The fact I have this name does not mean I want to conquer Oshana,” Uunona told The Times in the U.K., referring to his home region.
Namibia, once known as German South West Africa, was under German rule from 1884 to 1915, and Germanic names remain relatively common there. During a four-year uprising that began in 1904, German colonial forces killed thousands of Nama, Herero and San people — a chapter of history some historians describe as “the forgotten genocide.”
Uunona told Bild that he believes his father “probably didn’t understand what Adolf Hitler stood for” when he chose the name.
While the official vote count for the Nov. 26 election had not yet been released by the Electoral Commission of Namibia, multiple outlets have reported that Uunona once again won by a wide margin. Over the years, he has built a reputation as a popular, community-focused politician known for grassroots work and his stance on anti-apartheid issues, previously earning 85% of the vote in 2020.
