“But I have nothing to do with Nazism”

Dice: «I have nothing to do with Nazism and its ideals». Surely so, you have to believe Mr. Adolf Hitler, that last week he overwhelmingly won local elections in Namibia. Yes, Adolf Hitler himself, even if he prefers to be called Uunona Adolf Hitler. The man in question is a 54-year-old Namibian politician. “It was my father who wanted to call me that. He probably didn’t even know what the real Adolf Hitler had done. I don’t think he knew the damage he did to human history. “Namibian Adolf Hitler has spent his life fighting apartheid and has just been elected as a district councilor for Ompundja in the Oshana region.

VICTORIA NETA

The clear victory (85% of the votes) in the last elections, given the name it bears, certainly could not go unnoticed even beyond national borders. «I have no plans to take over the world», assures with a hint of sarcasm, perhaps inevitable. In an interview with the German newspaper Bild, he insisted that he had no «Nothing to do» with the Nazi ideology. Adolf, like other Germanic names, is not uncommon in Namibia, a southern African country that was once a German colony: between 1884 and 1915, Namibia was part of German territory called German South West Africa. The German Empire killed thousands in a 1904-1907 uprising by the local Nama, Herero, and San populations, in what some historians have called “the forgotten genocide.” Earlier this year, Namibia rejected an offer of 10 million euros from Germany in compensation for damages and deaths caused in the past, demanding to negotiate a larger offer.

«EVERYONE CALLS ME THIS»

Mr. Uunona said that his wife calls him Adolf and he calls himself so calmly in public and has no intention of changing. «It is my name, the one that was given to me. And I have nothing to do with the terrible things that my namesake criminal predecessor did. When I was a kid I saw it as a completely normal name. Has been just growing i understood: this man wanted to subjugate the whole world».

INDEPENDENCE

After World War I, Namibia came under South African control and gained independence in 1990. But it still has many German-named cities and a small German-speaking community. The center-left Swapo party, for which Adolf Hitler was a candidate, originated in the Namibian independence movement and has ruled the country since 1990. Its leader, Sam Nujoma, was the country’s first elected president. But support for the party waned after allegations of corruption in the fishing industry. In the late November elections, Swapo lost control of 30 major cities and towns. And therefore the landslide victory of Mr. Adolf Hitler takes on even more triumphant contours.

Last updated: 19:33


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