A politician called Adolf Hitler has been re-elected in Namibia for the fifth time in a row – and is finally changing his name.
The 59-year-old member of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) has represented Ompundja in the Oshana region since 2004, and was victorious in his local elections once more on Wednesday.
A respected anti-apartheid campaigner, he has found himself having to explain his name for years and has stressed he has no link to the Nazi leader.
Local newspaper The Namibian reported earlier this week he has now removed the middle name ‘Hitler’ from his identity document, so he is now just Adolf Uunona.
Shortly before the 2025 election, he told the paper that he wants to be referred to as ‘Adolf Uunona’ in the future, concerned that being referred to as Adolf Hitler was creating an image problem, despite having comfortably won previous elections.
“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.”
Following an election in 2020, Mr Uunona told German newspaper Bild that he has nothing to do with Nazi ideology, explaining that his father “probably didn’t understand what Adolf Hitler stood for.
Germanic names are not uncommon in Namibia, which was a German colony between 1884 and 1915, when it was captured by the Western Allies during World War I.
“As a child I saw it as a totally normal name,” he said. “It wasn’t until I was growing up that I realised: This man wanted to subjugate the whole world. I have nothing to do with any of these things.”
