The Bushmen, or San, have inhabited the lands for thousands of years since they roamed the area as nomadic hunters.

[2] However, since the mid-1990s the Botswana government has tried to relocate the Bushmen from the reserve, claiming they were a drain on financial resources despite revenues from tourism.

[3] In 2006 a Botswana court proclaimed the eviction illegal and affirmed the Bushmen's right to return to living in the reserve.

The Rapaport Diamond Report, a diamond-industry pricing guide, stated, "Ghaghoo's launch was not without controversy [...] given its location on the ancestral land of the Bushmen".

Four fossilized rivers meander through the reserve including Deception Valley which began to form around 16,000 years ago.