Leetile Disang Raditladi was born in Serowe, the land of the Bangwato in Botswana, in the year 1910, to parents Disang Raditladi and Nkwana Rantshosa, in the Ngwato royal house.

Raditladi started his education at Serowe Primary School and later enrolled at the Tiger Kloof Educational Institution near Vryburg in the present-day North West Province. He completed his matric at Lovedale College, then went on to study towards a Bachelor of Arts at the South African Native College which later became Fort Hare University, in eDikeni (Alice) in the Eastern Cape. He could not complete his studies and had to return home.

In 1937, Raditladi was accused by Tshekedi, the interim chief of the Bangwato, of having an affair with and impregnating his wife. The conflict between the two men shaped Raditladi's writing in a major way. Some of his poems were born out of this discord. In the poem “Motlhokagae” (Raditladi 1975: 6), Raditladi lays bare his feelings about Tshekedi's accusations; he laments being framed and how his people believed his accuser.

His first writing assignment was a biography of Khama III which was accepted for publication when he was still a student at Lovedale College. Regrettably, the government of the Bechuanaland Protectorate at the time put a spanner in the works and that project never got off the ground. There was sufficient reason to believe that Tshekedi obstructed the publication, since Raditladi was accused of using the manuscript to cast aspersions on Tshekedi. Unfortunately for Raditladi, Tshekedi was quite influential and powerful at that time.

Raditladi's love of writing and language first became evident when he wrote for the newspaper Naledi ya Batswana circa 1940, while he was working for the National Administration Council. He wrote a column for the paper under the pseudonym ‘Observer’. Among the many inspirations for his writing was his involvement with the revival of the Francistown African Employees Union in 1952, and his later role as the founder of a political party called the Bechuanaland Protectorate Federal Party; this party changed its name to the Liberal Party in 1959. Raditladi was made a chief by the Ngwato Tribal Administration in Mahalapye in 1959, where he died in 1972. Being involved in politics and in traditional leadership, as well as being harassed and victimised by Tshekedi, shaped Raditladi's writing.