Parliament Gardens:

Parliament Gardens is a small park between the Tintenpalast (the Parliament building) and the Christuskirche.  It was laid out in 1932 and was originally called the Tintenpalast Gardens, adopting its present name after Namibian independence in 1990.  Parliament Gardens contains Namibia’s first post-independence monument: a bronze-cast statue of the Herero chief Hosea Kutako (1870-1970), an early nationalist leader and the founder of the first nationalist party.  Two other Namibian nationalists are also honoured with bronze statues in the gardens: Hendrik Samuel Witbooi (1906-78), who helped Kutako draft the 1947 petition to place Namibia under British rule, and Theophilus Hamutumbangela (1917-1990), who was arrested in 1978 and allegedly poisoned so that his nervous system was paralysed.  The three statues flank the steps up to the parliament’s main entrance.  The gardens used to be an olive plantation and still include an olive grove.  They also contain a bowling green lined with bougainvillaea along with a thatched-roof clubhouse.  Twice a month the gardens host ‘Theatre in the Park’, run by the College of the Arts.