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".
根據美國歷史教授理查德·布拉德肖的說法，班達人和他們的鄰居加巴亞人在19世紀之前過著普遍的和平生活，之后凱文希靈頓說“非洲奴隸販子，然後歐洲殖民主義者將前所未有的暴力和經濟剝削引入他們的生活“。