Namibian Politician Named Adolf Hitler Wins Local Election, But Here’s Why The World Shouldn’t Be Afraid

A Namibian politician named after Adolf Hitler has won a sweeping victory in his country’s regional elections, but said he has no intention of attempting world domination.

Adolf Hitler Uunona was elected councilor last week in the Ompundja Constituency, in the northern Namibian region of Oshana, after winning 85% of the vote, the BBC reported. He represents the South West Africa People's Organisation (Swapo), the party that has governed Namibia ever since 1990, when the achieved independence from South Africa.

In an interview with German newspaper Bild, Uunona said that even though his name is the same as the Nazi dictator's, he said he has no intentions of following in the German chancellor's infamous footsteps.

"It was a completely normal name for me as a child. It wasn't until I was growing up that I realized: This man wanted to subjugate the whole world. I have nothing to do with any of these things," he told Bild. "My father named me after this man. He probably didn't understand what Adolf Hitler stood for."

"That I have this name doesn't mean that I want to subjugate Oshana now," Uunona said. "It doesn't mean that I'm striving for world domination."

Uunona said he goes by "Adolf Uunona" in public, and that it is now "too late" to change his name, considering it's written all of his official personal documents.

German names have passed down through generations in Namibia given the fact that the German Empire held Namibia under colonized rule from 1884 to 1915. The country was known as German South West Africa during that period.

During its rule, the German Empire staged a genocide against local anarchists, killing at least 65,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama people in concentration camps.

The country came under South African rule through a League of Nations mandate in 1915 after South Africa launched a military campaign and conquered the German colony of South West Africa. Swapo was founded in 1960.

The BBC article on Uunona makes no mention of whether Uunona has expressed any views regarding Hitler's extreme anti-Semitism and racist ideology, the Holocaust, and the Nazi's obsession with creating an Arayan master race.