Dacko was born in the village of Bouchia, near Mbaïki in the Lobaye region, which was then a part of the French Equatorial African territory of Ubangi-Shari to Joseph Iniabodé and Marie Okolania. His parents belonged to the same ethnic group. A M'Baka (Ngbaka), he was a distant cousin of future rival Jean-Bédel Bokassa. Soon after Dacko's birth, his family moved to Boda, where his father worked in a store belonging to a European coffee planter in Bonini named Tancret. In 1937, his father converted to Catholicism, after which he decided to stay married to one wife and sent the others away, including his mother. In 1938, he was sent to live with his uncle, Jêrome Gaza in Mbaïki. He began primary school in Mbaiki, where his father worked as a plantation's night watchman. He continued his primary education in Bambari before being admitted to the Ecole normale of Mouyoundzi in Moyen Congo. Studying for a career in teaching, he became schoolmaster of a large primary school in the capital, Bangui in 1951.