NEED TO KNOW
- 59-year-old Adolf Hitler Uunoma was reelected for the fifth time as a regional counselor in Namibia
- Over the years, Uunoma has tried to distance himself from the Nazi leader’s ideology, insisting that his father didn’t understand the name’s meaning when he chose it for him
- This week, he told a reporter that he’d decided to drop “Hitler” from his name
Despite having perhaps the most worst name on Earth for a politician, a Namibian man named Adolf Hitler Uunona reportedly won reelection to his council seat on Wednesday, Nov. 26, for the fifth time in a row.
Amid his victory, the 59-year-old politician — who was represented Ompundja in the Namibia’s Oshana Region since 2004 as a member of the South West Africa People’s Organization — announced that he’s ditching the notorious Nazi leader’s surname.
In an interview with The Namibian newspaper, Uunona said that he has decided to distance himself from the name his father gave him without fully grasping who Hitler was and what he had done.
“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 that he has removed “Hitler” from his Namibian identity documents because it doesn’t properly convey his character or his motivations, insisting that he now wishes to be called “Adolf Uunona.”
After his reelection in 2020, Uunona gave an interview to the German newspaper Bild, clarifying that, no, he doesn’t share his notorious namesake’s thirst for global domination.
“As a child I saw it as a totally normal name,” Uunona said, adding 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 as early as 2004, when he won his first council seat — as part of SWAPO, the party that has ruled Namibia since its independence in 1990 — it was clear that his name had become a headache for the aspiring politician.
“The fact I have this name does not mean I want to conquer Oshana,” Uunona told The Times in the U.K., referring to the region where he lives.
Namibia — once known as German South West Africa — was part of German territory between 1884 and 1915, and Germanic names are fairly common in the region. During a four-year revolt that began in 1904, the German Empire killed thousands of local Nama, Herero and San people, a painful period in the African nation’s history that some historians have referred to as “the forgotten genocide.”
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Uunoma told Bild that he is convinced that his father “probably didn’t understand what Adolf Hitler stood for.”
The official vote count for the Nov. 26 elections still hasn’t been released by Namibia’s Electoral Commission, but multiple news reports have described Uunona as winning the recent election by a large margin.
Over the years he has proven to be well-liked politician — praised for his grassroots work and focus on anti-apartheid issues — and garnered 85% of the vote in 2020.
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