LUSAKA, Zambia – Adolf Hitler Uunona, a long-serving local councillor in Namibia who carries the name of history’s most infamous dictator, was re-elected by a landslide in the Ompundja constituency on Thursday. Official results released late in the evening by the Electoral Commission of Namibia showed Uunona receiving 1,275 votes—more than 89% of the total—while his only opponent, Isak Akawa of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), received 148 votes. The victory marks Uunona’s fifth consecutive term representing the remote, flood-prone northern constituency in the Oshana region.
The election took place on Wednesday, 26 November 2025, as part of Namibia’s regional and local authority polls. In Ompundja, a rural area of roughly 4,659 residents who largely depend on subsistence farming, voter turnout was low, and SWAPO—the ruling South West Africa People’s Organization that has governed Namibia since independence in 1990—remains overwhelmingly dominant.
Just days before the vote, Uunona formally announced that he had legally dropped “Hitler” from his official name and now wishes to be known simply as Adolf Uunona. In a statement to local media, the 59-year-old councillor explained that he no longer wanted to be associated with the Nazi leader. “My name is not Adolf Hitler. I am Adolf Uunona,” he said, adding that his character and ambitions are “the complete opposite” of the former German chancellor. He stressed that he had little knowledge of the historical figure while growing up and that the name had been given by his father without understanding its sinister connotations.
Uunona was born in 1966 in the Oshana region during the era when Namibia, then known as South West Africa, was still under South African administration. German colonial rule had ended decades earlier in 1915, but German first names such as Adolf remained relatively common in parts of the north. Uunona has repeatedly said that as a child he saw nothing unusual about his name and only later learned of its dark historical weight.
He first captured the Ompundja seat in 2004 with an almost unanimous result and has been re-elected comfortably ever since, running unopposed in some cycles. His 2020 victory attracted global attention when international media focused heavily on his full name rather than his political record. Despite the headlines, Uunona has always distanced himself from any Nazi ideology, pointing to his own history as an anti-apartheid activist and SWAPO member during Namibia’s liberation struggle.
Locally, residents know him simply as “Councillor Adolf” and judge him by his work rather than his name. Over two decades in office, he has focused on practical issues: drilling boreholes for clean water, pushing for road improvements on the often impassable gravel tracks, supporting small-scale poultry and tailoring projects, and advocating for better flood management in an area regularly affected by seasonal efundja flooding from the Cuvelai river system.
This year’s election results reflect broader trends in Namibia. While SWAPO continues to dominate rural constituencies like Ompundja, the party has faced growing challenges in urban areas and from newer opposition groups such as the IPC, which campaigns on anti-corruption and economic reform platforms. Nationally, youth unemployment stands at around 33%, and many younger voters have expressed frustration with the pace of change 35 years after independence.
Uunona’s story also touches on Namibia’s complex colonial past. The country was a German colony from 1884 to 1915, a period that included the 1904–1908 genocide against the Herero and Nama peoples—widely regarded as the first genocide of the 20th century. German cultural traces, including some European names, persist in parts of the country despite that violent history.
For Uunona, the decision to officially shorten his name appears to be a final step in drawing a clear line between himself and the dictator he was unintentionally named after. At home his wife still calls him Adolf, and in the community he remains a familiar figure focused on boreholes, roads, and small economic projects rather than world domination.
As he begins another six-year term, the newly styled Adolf Uunona has pledged to continue tackling Ompundja’s everyday challenges—floods, water scarcity, and limited job opportunities—ensuring that the constituency’s progress is measured in concrete improvements rather than sensational headlines.
