The Senufo people were both victims of and perpetrators of slavery as they victimized other ethnic groups by enslavement. They were enslaved by various African ethnic groups as the Denkyira and Akan states were attacked or fell in the 17th and 18th centuries. They themselves bought and sold slaves to Muslim merchants, Asante people and Baoulé people. As refugees from other West African ethnic groups escaped wars, states Paul Lovejoy, some of them moved into the Senufo lands, seized their lands and enslaved them.