Who is my Nna Ochie?

Posted by Felix Okoli on Monday May 12, 2014 at 8:10:0:

A common phrase used in greeting among Igbo people when they meet with a particular male relative of theirs is "Nna Ochie" while the receiver of the greeting normally says Nwa di?

What do we mean by Nna Ochie? Who is a Nwa di?

To answer this question, I would first of all translate them a bit into English. "Nna Ochie" literally means "Old father". In summary, a person who says Nna Ochie is simply saying to the receiver of the greeting that they shared a common father in the past through a blood link

As an Igbo person, the family from where your mother comes from are your in-laws and so you'd refer to the male members there as your Nna ochie while the female folk there would be regarded as your Nne Ochie.

You can't marry from the same family your mother came from and same goes for your children and your grand children too. I think that runs till the 4th generation since you shared a blood link to that family.

Calling someone your Nna Ochie or Ochie simply means that you are duly regarding him or her as your in-law and in response the person would say Nwa di.

Nwa di means the husband's child and it simply means they regard you as their husband's child. When a man and woman gets married to each other in Igbo land, it is not just the two of them that are getting married but both of their families. The in-laws would normally regard the man as their husband or woman as their wife.

So when next you see your members of your mother's family, you should greet them with the words "Nna ochie" or "Nne ochie" and in response they would say "Nwa di".

If your sister is married and has children, her children would also greet you as their Ochie(in-law) too.