Joseff Gnagbo

Joseff Oscar Gnagbo (born ) is an Ivorian–born Welsh activist, teacher, linguist and musician from Cardiff. He was chairman of the Welsh Language Society between 2023 and 2025. Gnagbo came to Wales from the Ivory Coast in 2017 as an asylum seeker, in the midst of the military revolution. He quickly learned the Welsh language and became a Welsh tutor. He became chairman of Cymdeithas yr Iaith in October 2023. He is the first person who was born outside Wales to chair the Association. He was re-elected Chairman of the Association in 2024.

Background Gnagbo was a native of Abidjan, where he was a journalist and language teacher. Gnagbo was a musician and rapper, using his music to rally support for President Laurent Gbagbo during the 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis. In 2010, with the beginning of the civil war, French-backed rebels took over Abidjan and tracked down government supporters, including Gnagbo. He evaded capture twice by armed rebels, who killed several of his relatives during other searches. Gnagbo fled the country in 2011, first living in Morocco for six years before seeking asylum in the United Kingdom in 2017, following increased military relations between Morocco and Ivory Coast. But in an interview with the podcast he stated that he could not speak any of the indigenous languages of the Ivory Coast as none of them were taught to him by his parents, and the influence of French was so strong. His father spoke the Dida language.

He spoke at a meeting of the pro-independence think tank, at the Plaid Cymru conference in 2024 discussing the importance of the Welsh language to the campaign for independence and in an independent Wales again. He was a Plaid Cymru candidate in the Llanrumney ward at the 2025 by-election to Cardiff Council. He stood as a candidate in the Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf constituency in the 2026 Senedd election but was not elected, though he became the first refugee to stand as a candidate in the Senedd.

Honours At the 2024 National Eisteddfod of Wales he was inaugurated into the blue robe of Gorsedd y Beirdd.