After being elected as councillor for the fifth time, a Namibian politician named Adolf Hitler Uunona has made the decision to change his legal title, given the controversial connotations his moniker carries.
The 59-year-old secured the powerful position once again last week in a landslide victory and will continue representing the Ompundja constituency in the northern Oshana region of the largely-deserted country.
Unfortunately for the campaigner, who is best known for his anti-apartheid perspective, his victory has attracted unwanted international attention, given his hotly-debated name.
Despite having no affiliation with the infamous dictator – who died by suicide in 1945, which helped bring an end to World War II – Uunona has been forced to explain his heritage ever since first making major moves in Southern African politics in 2004.
For reference, Namibia was previously a German colony, being declared ‘German South West Africa’ in 1884. As such, Germanic-sounding names aren’t exactly uncommon.
The European country later confessed in 2021 that it had committed genocide in the Southern African country in the early twentieth century.
After some foreign news outlets unfairly nicknamed Uunona the ‘Adolf Hitler of Africa’, he spoke out in 2020, claiming that, though his father did name him after the former leader of Nazi Germany, neither he nor his politics bear any resemblance to the late Austrian.
“I didn’t have a choice,” he told The Namibian at the time. “I don’t know what was going on. I was a baby when my father gave me that name.”
Of his father, Uunona continued the same year: “He probably didn’t know what Adolf Hitler stood for. When I was a child it was just a normal name to me.
“Only later did I realise this man wanted to conquer the whole world. I have nothing to do with any of those things.
He also voiced his horror when an international magazine published his photograph alongside Hitler’s, telling press: “They are sensationalising. Are they only hearing my name for the first time now?
Claiming he’s truly unaware why the title was ever selected, he continued: “Hitler was a controversial person who captured and killed people across the globe. I am not like him.
He added at the time: “There is nothing that I can do to change the name. I also do not know why my father gave me that name.”
Despite the promise he made five years ago, the politician – who is a member of the more-liberal South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) – has since made the decision to have his legal name dropped officially.
“My name is not Adolf Hitler, I am Adolf Uunona,” he declared this week following his election, confirming that his ID documents now bore his new title.
“I have seen in the past people calling me Adolf Hitler and trying to associate me with someone I do not even know.”