Adolf Hitler Set To Win Re-Election in Coming Namibian Vote
The politician says his wife just calls him Adolf.
A Namibian politician named after Adolf Hitler appears set to win a landslide re-election in the southern African nation.
Adolf Hitler Uunona is running to retain the seat in a local election on a regional council that he has held for the past five years. Elections are Wednesday and Mr. Uunona was swept into office in 2020 with 85 percent of the vote.
His eyebrow-raising name drew widespread global attention during his previous campaign.
âMy father named me after this man. He probably didnât even understand what Adolf Hitler stood for,â Mr. Uunona has previously told the German news outlet Bild.
âAs a child I saw it as a totally normal name,â Mr. Uunona continued. âIt wasnât until I was growing up that I realized this man wanted to subjugate the whole world.â
âI have nothing to do with any of these things,â Mr. Uunona also told the news outlet.
Namibia is a former German colony and Germanic names are common there, according to the Jerusalem Post. The country also has many streets and locations with German names.
In the Bild interview, he said his wife calls him Adolf and he usually drops the Hitler when referring to himself in public. As for changing his name, Mr. Uunona said thatâs not going to happen. âItâs on all official documents. Itâs too late for that,â Mr. Uunona said.
As for his politics, Mr. Uunona said he has nothing in common with the brutal German dictator. Mr. Uunona is a member of the Swapo party, which led the campaign against colonial and white-minority rule and has ruled the country since 1990.
The Germans killed more than 70,000 in what was then called South West Africa in the early 20th century, decades earlier than the Holocaust.
Germany has offered more than a billion dollars in development aid to be paid over 30 years and a formal apology but Namibia has not formally approved the tentative reparations deal.
