Shitta-Bey was born in the liberated African village of Waterloo, Sierra Leone, to Salu and Aishat Shitta, repatriated Yoruba people who were rescued by the British West Africa Squadron from the Atlantic Slave Trade and were a part of the Oku Mohammedan community in Sierra Leone. Shitta-Bey's parents moved from Waterloo to Fourah Bay around 1831,[3] where his father became Imam of the Fourah Bay Muslim community.[4] Shitta's birth name was Mohammed Shitta.