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Not many names evoke the scorn and contempt globally as that of former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler. The leader of the Nazi party and the man behind the holocaust is still condemned, seven decades after his death.
But the name Adolf Hitler does not evoke the same feelings in Namibia, where he is on track to win his second election. Well, it is not the same Hitler who died in 1945 who is contesting the local bodies election in Namibia, but someone who is named after the former German Chancellor.
Who is Adolf Hitler Uunona
Adolf Hitler Uunona, a politician from the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo) may have one of the most unenviable names possible, but according to local media reports, come Wednesday, November 26, he is projected to win the election to the Ompundja constituency, with a landslide margin.
Uunona first made headlines in 2020 when he contested the local bodies elections in Namibia, and five years later, he is back in the news for the same reasons.
Namibia’s German connection
So how did the 59-year-old get named after one of the most hated political figures in the world? Namibia, then called German South West Africa, was a German colony until 1915.
Incidentally, Namibia was the scene of a genocide, carried out by the Germans under the rule of German Kaiser Wilhelm II. Often referred to as the Kaiser’s Holocaust, the genocide saw around 60,000 to 100,000 Herero and Namaqua people killed by German settlers between 1904 and 1908.
Namibia still carries the relics of its German colonial past, and it is not uncommon to have German names. But in a 2020 interview with a German media house, Uunona, who likes to go by the name Adolf Uunona said his father probably didn’t understand what Adolf Hitler stood for.
“As a child, I saw it as a totally normal name.
“Only as a teenager did I understand that this man wanted to conquer the whole world.”
According to Uunona, it is now “too late” to change his name as it appears on all his official documents.
