Mungwira grew up in Southern Africa under British colonial rule. Mungwira's family was from a district known as Nyasaland, which was then part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Mungwira grew up speaking Chewa and was a member of the Bantu people.[1]
Mungwira's early education took place at the Howard Institute, a school run by a Salvation Army Mission in the town of Glendale, a village in today's Mazowe District, Mashonaland Central province of Zimbabwe. Later she undertook secondary studies at Inanda Seminary School followed by Fort Hare University, where she graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree in 1954.[2][1][3] Fort Hare University was an institution that served only black students, due to the system of apartheid in South Africa at the time.[4]
In 1955, Mungwira travelled to the United Kingdom to study medicine at the University of Bristol. She obtained her degree at age 26 in July 1961.[5][6] Upon her graduation, Mungwira became the first African woman to qualify as a doctor from the territory of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.[7][8] After graduation, she remained in the United Kingdom for a year of compulsory practical training.[1]
In 1962, at the age of 27, Mungwira returned to Africa to practise medicine.[9] Little is known about her later life as a physician. On her return, she expressed a preference to practise medicine at a rural hospital in her home province of Nyasaland, where she grew up.[1] Nyasaland existed until 1964, when it became independent from Britain and was renamed Malawi. In the 1970s, Mungwira's medical practice was based in Salisbury (present-day Harare).[10]