Namibian politician named Adolf Hitler projected to win re-election to local council

Local politician Adolf Hitler Uunona, named after the Nazi dictator, is projected to retain his seat in Namabia's local elections. Photo / Oshana Regional Council

A politician named after Adolf Hitler is expected to win re-election in the upcoming Namibian local elections.

Adolf Hitler Uunona made headlines in 2020 after he was first elected as councillor for the Ompundja constituency.

Now the country’s electoral commission predicts the 59-year-old will win his seat again after he claimed it with 85% of the vote five years ago, the Sun reported.

Speaking about his name in 2020, Uunona admitted to German newspaper Bild that his father named him after the fascist dictator but that “he probably didn’t understand what Adolf Hitler stood for”.

He said that as a child, he believed it was a “totally normal name”.

“It wasn’t until I was growing up that I realised: this man wanted to subjugate the whole world,” he said.

“I have nothing to do with any of these things.”

He told the outlet it is “too late” to change his name as it is on all of his official documents.

Uunona is a member of the ruling Swapo party, which arose from Namibia’s movement for independence from South Africa.

The centre-left party has been in power since 1990.

Germanic names are common in Namibia as it was formerly part of the German colony, German South-West Africa.

The country also has several German-named towns and a small German-speaking population, the BBC reported.

In 2020, Namibia rejected a reported offer of €10 million ($20.53m) in compensation for the slaughter of indigenous people from 1904-08.

Namibia’s President at the time, Hage Geingob, said the offer was not acceptable and that it needed to be revised, according to the Guardian.