A politician called Adolf Hitler is set to win a local election in his home country, but claimed his father had no idea about the Nazi leader’s significance when he named his son.
Adolf Hitler Uunona, 59, is poised to win a second local election in the southwest African country of Namibia on Nov. 26, holding his seat in the north of the country after previously receiving 85% of the vote in 2020.
The member of the left-wing Swapo party previously spoke about his infamous name after coming to global attention following his win in the Ompundja constituency.
His father “probably didn’t understand what Adolf Hitler stood for. As a child, I saw it as a totally normal name,” the politician told German newspaper Bild in 2020.
“Only as I grew up did I understand this man wanted to conquer the whole world. I have nothing to do with any of these things,” he added.
Uunona’s wife calls him Adolf, but in public, he normally omits Hitler. Despite that, he insisted he wouldn’t change his name.
“It’s in all official documents. It’s too late for that,” he told Bild.
As a former German colony, Namibia still has a lot of Germanic place names, and traditional names such as Adolf are not uncommon.
In 2020, a car was spotted in Uunona’s home region of Oshana with the name “Adolf Hitler” accompanied by a Nazi swastika on its rear window.
However, Uunona claimed the car wasn’t his, and said he had no connection to the sick stunt.
