Adolf Uunona, a longtime local politician in northern Namibia whose birth name once mirrored that of the Nazi dictator, has formally removed “Hitler” from his identity documents – a move he says finally breaks with a legacy he never chose and never embraced.
For years, Uunona, a councilor in the Ompundja constituency in the Oshana Region, has fielded international headlines and online jokes about his name, even as he quietly built a reputation for steady local leadership, accessible governance and development-focused initiatives.
This week, he confirmed to The Namibian newspaper that he has legally deleted “Hitler” from his official records, insisting the name had followed him like an unwanted shadow for most of his life.
“My name is not Adolf Hitler,” he said. “I am Adolf Uunona. I have seen people try to associate me with someone I do not even know.”
Uunona said the name came from his father, who selected it without understanding its global weight or the horrors tied to Adolf Hitler’s rule in Germany.
That lack of awareness, he said, stemmed from the context of Namibia’s past – a country that spent decades as a German colony at the turn of the 20th century, long before Hitler rose to power in Berlin.
Despite his unusual name, Uunona has enjoyed strong electoral support. He has held his council seat since 2004 and has repeatedly secured overwhelming victories.
On Wednesday, he again stood for re-election, and on Thursday the results confirmed another landslide win.
Uunona received 1,275 votes to challenger Isak Akawa’s 148, securing yet another term representing the ruling SWAPO party.
Akawa represented the opposition Independent Patriots for Change (IPC).
To voters in Ompundja, Uunona’s name never mattered as much as his work.
Residents often describe him as hands-on, approachable and effective – a local figure who helped advance infrastructure projects and advocate for development in a rural region often overlooked.
“He is judged on his performance, not on his name,” a voter told local media.
Still, Uunona said the international attention – much of it sensationalized or mocking – added pressure to distance himself from the name as Namibia’s political landscape grows more competitive and more visible globally.
Over the years, he repeatedly explained that he had no link to Nazi ideology and no affinity for its history, but the clarifications never fully stopped the misunderstandings.
“I do not want my ambition and character to be associated with someone whose actions I condemn,” he said. “Removing the name officially makes that clear.”
His decision reflects a broader sensitivity inside Namibia regarding remnants of its colonial past. German rule from 1884 to 1915 left behind cultural traces, place names and legacies that still shape local identities. Today, many Namibians navigate names rooted in that era, some benign, others complicated by global history. Uunona’s case remains one of the most prominent because of the notoriety carried by the dictator’s name.
Even so, the politician’s latest landslide win suggests there is little doubt about how his community sees him – not as a symbol of a dark past, but as a public servant grounded in the present.
Uunona said he chose to make the name change official now because he wants future political engagement to focus solely on his work and not on a historical parallel he never invited.
