Adolf Hitler is heading back to office. Only this time, it is Adolf Hitler Uunona, a regional councillor from Namibia’s ruling SWAPO (South West Africa People's Organisation) party.
Namibia is going to polls on 26 November 2025, and Uunona is once again in the global spotlight as he heads toward a likely second electoral victory. While his name instantly evokes one of history’s most reviled figures elsewhere in the world, in Namibia it reflects the lingering imprint of German colonial rule.
Uunona, now 59, is a long serving representative from the Ompundja constituency in the country’s southwest region. Local media projected a landslide win for him in Wednesday’s vote, continuing the momentum from his first high profile appearance during the 2020 local elections, when international attention turned to him purely because of his name.
Namibia, once known as German South West Africa, remained under German rule until 1915. The colonial period left deep marks on its society, from place names to family names, many of which survive today. German settlers also carried out one of the earliest genocides of the twentieth century, killing an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 Herero and Nama people between 1904 and 1908 under Kaiser Wilhelm II.
The persistence of German names is therefore not unusual in modern Namibia. Uunona has explained in past interviews that his father likely chose the name “Adolf Hitler” without understanding what the historical figure represented. “As a child, I saw it as a totally normal name,” he said in a 2020 interview. “Only as a teenager did I understand that this man wanted to conquer the whole world.”
He now goes by Adolf Uunona in most settings, though changing his full name is not practical since it appears on all official documents. He has repeatedly emphasised that he has no connection to the ideology of the Nazi dictator. “I’m not like him,” said Uunona, who himself is staunchly anti-apartheid.
Despite the uncomfortable global associations, the name has had little bearing on Uunona’s political standing within his constituency. Voters appear to judge him on local governance issues rather than historical symbolism, and he remains a prominent SWAPO figure in his region.
As Namibia continues to grapple with its colonial legacy, Uunona’s unusual name has become an occasional international curiosity rather than a domestic controversy. For voters in Ompundja, it is his work as a councillor that matters, not the name he was given at birth. [Rh]
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