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Ilu — Igbo Proverb
“Egbe bere, ugo bere, nke sị ibe ya ebela, nku kwaa ya.”
Literally, let the hawk perch, and let the eagle perch too, whichever bird tries to stop the other from perching, may its wing break. Igbo elders have long used this saying to teach that people can hold different positions and still share the same sky: coexistence, not domination, is what keeps the community whole.
A language of tone
Igbo is a tonal language, the same string of letters can carry entirely different meanings depending on the pitch used to say it.
Letters of their own
The Igbo alphabet adds distinct vowels not found in English: ị, ọ, and ụ, each representing its own sound. Ụwa Mgbede takes its name from one of them. There are also additional consonants/digraphs: ch, gb, gh, gw, kp, kw, ṅ, nw, ny, sh.
Symbols before script
Long before the Latin alphabet arrived, Igbo communities used Nsibidi, a system of ideographic symbols, to record ideas, status, and messages.