Yema Lucilda Hunter was born in 1943 in Freetown. She was educated at the Annie Walsh Memorial School, before undertaking university study in England. She gained a BA from the University of Reading in 1964, a post-graduate diploma in librarianship from North-Western Polytechnic in 1966, and a master’s degree in philosophy from Loughborough University.

Hunter has worked as a librarian at the Sierra Leone Library Board, in the Medical Library at Connaught Hospital in Freetown, and with the World Health Organization in Brazzaville. She took early retirement in 1999, and that year was made a fellow of the British Library Association. She lives with her husband in Accra, Ghana.