Yewande Omotoso was born in Bridgetown, Barbados;[6] and within a year of her birth went with her Barbadian mother, Nigerian father and two older brothers to Nigeria. She grew up in Ile-Ife, Osun State, until 1992, when the family moved to South Africa[7][8] after her father took an academic appointment with the University of the Western Cape.[9] She has said, "Regardless of how many years I’ve lived in South Africa I think of myself as a product of three nations: Barbados, Nigeria, and South Africa.