Lihambra was born in Morogoro District, Tanzania in 1944.[2] She earned her Ph.D from the University of Leeds. Her 1985 doctoral dissertation was on "Politics and Theatre in Tanzania after the Arusha Declaration 1967–1984".[3] In it she describes how after the Arusha Declaration the Tanzanian verse drama ngonjera evolved from a propaganda tool of the ruling party into a subversive and syncretic form.[4]