Ndiaga Socé is a Seereer-Siin singer, composer, and riti master from Thiofak, Kaolack (Senegal). He is a highly acclaimed riti (the one-stringed fiddle musical instrument) master and former protégé of the great riti player Mbissane Diange. Socé has been performing professionally since 1983. His style of music is Seereer folk, riti, mbalax, hiyan, salsa and ndaga. 

 

Socé started as a drummer. He was raised by his grandfather Bai Fall Ngom who taught him drumming. His father Sainy Socé is a cousin of the late great Gambian-Senegalese salsa singer Laba Sosseh (paternal uncle of Tamsier Joof, founder of the SRC Group and first cousin of the Senegambian artist the late Musa Ngum). Socé's father was a legendary xalam player. 

 

According to Socé, his calling to play the riti appeared to him in a dream. The riti was given to him at night by an ancestor who appeared to him in a dream, he said. He went on to say that, the following day, he started playing the riti by himself without any training. 

 

Socé was inspired by the great riti master Mbissane Diange. As a child, he would listen intensely to Mbassane and re-enacted his music. He perfected his craft as a riti player by re-enacting Mbissane Diange's music. Socé would go on to meet his idol Mbissane who saw potential in Socé,  and on one occasion, lent him his riti to play for him. That gesture by the legendary riti master Mbissane, is highly significant, because historically (even now to some extent), it is taboo for someone else to touch an artist's riti, same as the Seereer gamba musical instrument. Although Mbissane took him under his wing and told him "he [Socé] is the only one he sees who can replace him" - and tried to train him, Socé's parents did not want him to pursue that line of work as he  was very young at the time.  

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Socé has been a resident performer at the Daniel Sorano National Theater in Dakar for three consecutive years up to 2019 and just before the COVID-19 pandemic. He has toured and performed in various notable functions including being invited to perform at the Ageen and Jambonge festival in Ziguinchor in 2019, and three years prior. Socé has appeared on numerous radio and television programmes as a guest. His last album Sidy Bouya Ndiaye was released in 2006. The flagship track of that album by the same name pays homage to the late Senegalese colonel, politician, and nobleman Sidy Bouya Ndiaye - descendant of the royal family of Siin. 

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Socé's desire is for "the Seereer community to support Seereer artists like Tamsier Joof." He has been singing for years and wants the Seereer community and fans to support their artists who are great disenfranchised. 

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Socé's latest work as of December 2022 is on Seereer Heritage's single Ceereer ne ino mbogun released on 15 December 2022 which is the flagship track to the upcoming album Ino mbogu Seereer ne (to be released in 2023). On this single and album, Socé appears as one of the primary artists following Seereer Heritage's artist auditions held in Kaolack on 27 August 2022. 

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Discography

 

Title: Ino mbogu Seereer ne (album).

Released: 2023

Label: Seereer Heritage

Format: Digital & USB music card

Role: Primary artist

 

Title: Ceereer ne ino mbogun (single, from the album Ino mbogu Seereer ne).

Released: 15 December 2022

Label: Seereer Heritage

Format: Digital & USB music card

Role: Primary artist

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Title: Sidy Bouya Ndiaye (album).

Released: 2006

Label: -

Format: Cassette 

Role: Primary artist