TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A local politician in northern Namibia, Adolf Hitler Uunona, is seeking reelection in the Ompundja constituency of the Oshana region. The 59-year-old councilor, a member of Namibia’s ruling left-wing party SWAPO, has attracted international attention due to his unusual name.
According to Russia Today, the election is scheduled for November 26, 2025.
Uunona has served as a local councilor since 2004 and is widely expected to retain his seat, having won roughly 85 percent of the vote in 2020, according to German news outlet Bild, cited by Russia Today.
He first gained global media attention in 2020 when his full name drew international headlines. Uunona explained that his father deliberately named him Adolf Hitler, though likely without fully understanding the historical significance of the Nazi leader.
“My father named me after this man. He probably didn’t understand what Adolf Hitler stood for. As a child, I saw it as a totally normal name,” Uunona said at the time.
He emphasized that he does not support Nazi ideology. “Only as I grew up did I realize: This man wanted to subjugate the whole world. I have nothing to do with any of these things.”
Namibia, previously known as German South West Africa, was a German colony from 1884 until it was occupied by South African forces in 1915 during World War I.
The territory remained under South African administration until independence in 1990. German influence persists in place names and personal names, with first names such as Adolf still relatively common among older generations.
The Times of Israel noted that between 1904 and 1908, the German Empire carried out a genocide against the Ovaherero and Nama peoples in Namibia, killing approximately 70,000 people. Germany officially acknowledged the genocide in 2021, and Namibian leaders continue to pursue reparations.
German influence lingered long after the colonial period, with some areas becoming homes for Nazis fleeing Germany after World War II.
A 1976 article in The New York Times reported that some German-Namibians continued to greet one another with “Heil Hitler.”
Despite the controversy surrounding his name, Uunona is expected to win reelection, according to Namibia’s electoral commission.
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