Namibian politician called Adolf Hitler Uunona seeks re-election

Words by ITV News Producer Jamel Smith

A Namibian politician called Adolf Hitler Uunona is seeking re-election, a ballot that has once again drawn global attention because of his notorious name.

Uunona, 59, is standing for the Swapo party in the northern constituency of Ompundja, where he won by a landslide in 2020 with 85% of the vote.

Early projections suggest he is on course to keep his seat.

Despite his name, Uunona is a respected local figure and an anti-apartheid campaigner with a long record in regional politics.

He has repeatedly stressed he has no link to the genocidal Nazi leader whose name he shares.

Speaking to German newspaper Bild in 2020, he said he had “nothing to do” with Adolf Hitler’s ideology and explained that his father chose the name without understanding its historical significance.

As a child, he saw it as “a totally normal name”, only later realising the horrors associated with it. He told the newspaper, it was “too late” to change his name.

Germanic names remain common in Namibia, a legacy of its period under German colonial rule from 1884 to 1915.

The country still has German-named towns and a small German-speaking community, but few public figures attract as much curiosity as a politician called Adolf Hitler running for office in 2024.