By Alice GibbsShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberAdolf Hitler Uunona, a longtime local politician in northern Namibia, has secured re-election in the Ompundja constituency of the Oshana region.
But it is not his political success that has made headlines—it is his name.
The veteran councilor, who has served the community since 2004, won Wednesday’s vote by a wide margin, though official tallies from Namibia’s Electoral Commission have yet to be released.
Uunona, a member of the governing South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO), has long acknowledged the controversy surrounding his given name.
This week, he confirmed to The Namibian that he has formally removed “Hitler” from his official identity documents and now prefers to be known publicly as Adolf Uunona.
“My name is not Adolf Hitler. I am Adolf Uunona,” he said. “I have seen people calling me Adolf Hitler and trying to associate me with someone I do not even know.”
...A Name Chosen Without Context
Uunona, 59, has repeatedly stressed that he has no ties to Nazi ideology. He has said his father gave him the name without understanding its historical significance during Namibia’s decades under South African administration.
“For me, as a child, it was a perfectly normal name. Only as I grew up did I understand: This man wanted to conquer the whole world. I have nothing to do with any of these things,” he told German newspaper Bild in 2020—when he won his fourth term—he said he only realized the weight of the name as he grew older.
A Popular Local Figure
Despite his infamous namesake, Uunona remains one of the most consistently supported local politicians in the country. He previously won the Ompundja constituency with 85 percent of the vote in 2020 and has retained strong backing in the small northern district of fewer than 5,000 residents.
Ompundja, which covers 466 square kilometers and includes 19 administrative centers, borders the constituencies of Ondangwa Rural, Uukwiyuushona, Oshakati East, Oshakati West and Uuvudhiya. The constituency office is based at Enguwantale Growth Point.
A Legacy of Colonial Naming
Adolf, like other Germanic first names, is not uncommon in the country, which was once a German colony before coming under South African rule after World War I. The country achieved independence in 1990, and SWAPO—originally a liberation movement—has dominated national and regional politics since.
As Uunona prepares for another term, he emphasized that his focus is on service to his constituency—not the lingering attention that his birth name continues to attract.
Newsweek reached out to Adolf Uunona via email for comment.
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