Vai Syllable Mgbu

ꖠ represents the Vai syllable written in Latin letters as “mgbu.” It contributes a syllable to Vai text; words join characters without spaces, and some longer syllables use more than one character.

Vai writing took shape in Liberia in the early 1830s with Mọmọlu Duwalu Bukẹlẹ and collaborators. The oldest known surviving sample is a page Fan Dawo Kelondo wrote in 1834 at missionary John Leighton Wilson’s request.

Comparisons of records from 1834–2005 show that the script’s forms changed; later standardization drew on the 1962 Vai Standard Syllabary and older sources. It served practical needs such as letters, record-keeping and trade. The “Vai book” tradition linked literacy with education and community autonomy alongside Arabic and Latin writing. Earlier picture-like Vai signs fed into the script, though most were dropped as it became phonetic. Mende Kikakui, another West African script, likely drew on early Vai; a proposed Cherokee connection remains debated.

Why does ꖠ appear as a square?

Your font or app lacks a Vai glyph. Unicode identifies the character, but a font draws its shape. Without Vai font coverage, an app may show a box or question mark; different Vai fonts can draw it differently.