Namibian politician named Adolf Hitler Uunona wins local re-election

A Namibian politician named Adolf Hitler Uunona has won re-election in his northern constituency, according to media reports. Uunona, who has long acknowledged the controversy surrounding his name, said he is removing “Hitler” from his official identity documents.

The elections were held on Wednesday in the Ompundja constituency of the Oshana region, where Uunona has served as a councillor since 2004. Namibia’s Electoral Commission has not yet released the official tally, but he secured a wide margin of victory, according to Euronews.

Uunona, 59, has said his father named him without understanding the historical significance tied to Adolf Hitler. “As a child I saw it as a totally normal name,” he previously told media outlets.

In an interview with The Namibian on Wednesday, Uunona said he no longer wants to be known by his birth name and has formally removed “Hitler” from his identity document. He stated that he has no connection to Nazi ideology and prefers to go by Adolf Uunona.

“My name is not Adolf Hitler. I am Adolf Uunona,” he told The Namibian. “I have seen in the past people calling me Adolf Hitler and trying to associate me with someone I do not even know.”

Uunona’s constituency, Ompundja, is located in northern Namibia, a country in southern Africa bordering Angola, Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa.