According to American history professor Richard Bradshaw, the Banda people along with their neighbors, the Gbaya people, lived a generally peaceful life before the 19th century, after which Kevin Shillington states "African slave traders and then European colonialists introduced unprecedented violence and economic exploitation into their lives". Greek social anthropology professor G. P. Makris states that the Banda people, along with the Nuba and Gumuz ethnic groups, were also a major victim of slave trading by Turco-Egyptians, and "Banda" is a synonym for slave or bondman in the Persian language.