Laurent Eketebi was born on 13 May 1936 in Coquilhatville, Belgian Congo to a Ngombe father and a Mongo mother. He attended the administrative and commercial section of the Groupe Scolaire Officiel Congréganiste, run by the Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes in Coquilhatville, where he received six years of primary education and six years of secondary education, graduating in 1954. He later married Béatrice Lifela Y'Aekesako and had nine children with her.
