Adolf Hitler Uunona

Namibian civil rights activist

Adolf Hitler Uunona is a Namibian civil rights activist and politician. He has been a councillor and member of the South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) since 2003.

Adolf Hitler Uunona
Councilor of the SWAPO
In office
Since 2004
PresidentNangolo Mbumba (acting)
Prime MinisterSaara Kuugongelwa
Vice PresidentNangolo Mbumba
Opponent(s)Mumbala Abner
ConstituencyOmpundja constituency, Oshana Region, Republic of Namibia
Personal details
Born (1965-12-03) December 3, 1965 (age 58)
South West Africa (now Namibia)
CitizenshipNamibia
Political party SWAPO
Other political
affiliations
MPLA
OccupationPolitical activist and politician
Known forSharing the same name as former Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler
Websitehttps://oshanarc.gov.na/ompundja
Military service
AllegiancePeople’s Liberation Army of Namibia
Battles/warsSouth African Border War

Career

Southwest Africa

Uunona joined politics as an activist and as a member a of SWAPO. He was also a member of the militant organization People's Liberation Army. At the time, South Africa had a segregation system which separated black and white people known as apartheid.

Post-independence Namibia

A map showing the Oshana region of Namibia, where Uunona was elected, in dark grey.

He has been elected as a councillor several times since 2004 at the constituency of Ompundja in the Oshana regional council elections in year 2010 and 2015.[1] In November 2020, he won a local election in northern Namibia with 1,196 votes, which was 85% of the vote. The other person in the election, Mumbala Abner of the IPC party got only 213 votes. Uunona continued to be the councillor of the Ompundja constituency of Namibia.[2]

Name

German names like “Adolf” are common in Namibia, in part because Namibia was a German colony called German South West Africa between 1884 and 1915 under the German Empire, and later a mandate of the Union of South Africa.[2]

International news sources wrote that Uunona has the same name as Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Germany during World War II.[3][4] Adolf Uunona says his father probably did name him after Adolf Hitler but does not think his father knew who Adolf Hitler was at the time. "It wasn't until I was growing up that I realized: This man wanted to subjugate the whole world," he said. Uunona usually goes by the first name "Adolf" alone or "Adolf Uunona" while in public. He says he has no plans to change his name, since it is already on so many government documents.[5] Uunona is known to take his name light-heartedly, saying that he has no goals of "world domination."[6]

There are some memes about how his name is similar to the dictator Adolf Hitler. These memes generally have a picture of an article with a title like "Man named Adolf Hitler wins election in Namibia," and a caption about Uunona not being related to the Austrian German Adolf Hitler.[source?]

References