Kitereza was the grandson of the king Machunda from the Silanga clan of the island of Ukerewe in Lake Victoria.
He was born on the island of Ukerewe in Lake Victoria to a mother called Muchuma and her husband Malindima.
Two years later, in 1907, king Mukaka died and was succeeded by his son Ruhumbika who encouraged Kitereza to leave Kagunguli in 1909 to pursue further schooling at the Rubya Roman Catholic Seminary in today's Kagera Region near the Ugandan border.
Kitereza also learned Swahili, the African language used as the lingua franca by Arab traders, slavers, and the coastal middlemen.
It was translated from Kikerewe into English by Gabriel Ruhumbika, a Tanzanian writer, professor of literature and a nephew of Kitereza.