Sandra Jackson-Opoku was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She attended Columbia College in Chicago for three years, majoring in Journalism. She then transferred to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she changed her major to Communications/Afro-American Studies, attaining her BA in 1976. During her college years Jackson-Opoku studied under two people who she cites as literary influences, African writer: Chinua Achebe and Caribbean writer Michael Thelwell. Other authors who have influenced her include African-American writer Toni Morrison and Latin American writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
