A member of the Vili ethnic group, Gnali was born in Brazzaville in October 1935.
However, she was expelled and returned to Congo in 1952, completing her education at the Savorgnan de Brazza school and becoming the first girl in French Equatorial Africa to earn a baccalaureate.
[1] After earning her diploma, making her one of the first Congolese women to gain a university degree,[2] she returned to Congo in September 1963 and began teaching at a high school in Pointe-Noire.
However, having become a member of the National Movement of the Revolution (MNR), she was a candidate for the party in the December 1963 parliamentary elections.
After returning to Congo in 1967, she was appointed Director General of the Department of Education in 1968, holding the post until the following year.