Who are the Bushmen of Gope?
Several Bushman clans or ‘bands’ occupy the south-eastern part of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) and share the resources of this area which they call Ghagho, and outsiders call Gope. The Gope Bushmen identify themselves as Tsila, which, along with Gana and Gwi, is one of the click languages spoken by the Bushmen of the CKGR. How many Bushmen live in Gope? Before they were all evicted in 2002, the Bushmen of Gope numbered about 200 individuals. Map showing traditional territories of different Bushman groups inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The territory of the Gope Bushmen is highlighted in red. The large Gope diamond deposit can be seen almost in the middle of their territory Were there Bushmen at Gope before De Beers arrived? Bushmen have lived in the Gope area for generations, and long before Falconbridge and De Beers started diamond prospecting in the early 1980s. Many alive today were born there. Moloreng Balane, born in 1923, recalls, ‘I was born in Gope and my
