How a white reggae band forced Switzerland to question cultural appropriation

Members of the band "Lauwarm". Two of them wear dreadlocks. Zvg

Are white musicians allowed to wear dreadlocks and African clothes and play reggae? This is the question that Switzerland is tackling this summer.

What happened?

On July 18 the Swiss reggae band Lauwarm performed at the Brasserie Lorraine in Bern. The band plays Jamaican music, sings in Swiss dialect and wears partly African ethnic clothing and dreadlocks.

This attire upset some visitors, with “several people” expressing “discomfort with the situation”, the restaurant wrote on its Facebook page, where it made the incident public on July 25. The issue, it said, was “cultural appropriation”.

After a conversation with the band, the restaurant decided to cancel the concert. The restaurant apologised to “everyone for whom the concert had caused bad feelings”. The following day it issued a statement specifying “that members of the band or white people are not automatically racists”.

What is cultural appropriation?

The term comes from postcolonial studies. As defined by the Encyclopaedia Britannica, it means the exploitative, disrespectful or stereotypical adoption of foreign cultural techniques and symbols. Other definitions see “cultural appropriation” as occurring when members of a dominant, usually white, culture use elements of a minority culture that they had systematically suppressed, such as Africans or Native Americans. In addition to Native American carnival costumes, the wearing of dreadlocks by whites is a frequently cited example of cultural appropriation.

The charge of cultural appropriation in the music industry is an old one. Many white producers – and artists like Elvis – made money off songs sung by black composers that otherwise were unheard of. White rapper Eminem has also been embroiled in the debate, as has British reggae band UB40, whose white and black members have made fortunes on pop versions of Jamaican classics.

Henri-Michel Yéré, sociologist at the University of Basel with Ivorian roots. zvg

Social scientist Henri-Michel Yéré of the University of Basel said on Swiss public television, SRF, on Wednesday that “cultural appropriation” is also when a cultural aspect is played out as a cliché, without respect for the history of the minority in question.

What is the background of the debate?

“In all societies where there are minorities who feel under pressure – culturally, financially, sexually – such questions will arise at some point,” Yéré said.

He considers it misguided to simply ban people with white skin from wearing dreadlocks, “because it can also be a gesture of solidarity”.  However, “this is not just about a cultural exchange”. One must also be aware of the respective context and associated power relations, he said.

Harald Fischer-Tiné studies the history of colonialism and imperialism at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich. In his opinion, the outrage over cultural appropriation is based on the assumption that there is a “pure” culture. According to this, there would be “yellow”, “black” and “white” styles of music that should not mix. “Ultimately, the criticism of cultural appropriation promotes the ethnicisation of culture,” he told the daily newspaper 24 heures.

What is the significance of dreadlocks?

The strands of matted head hair, also called dreadlocks or dreads, were worn and still are worn in many cultures, including by the Vikings and the Aztecs. They also appear in Hinduism and in Islam. With the culture of the Rastafari in Jamaica and their most famous representative, reggae star Bob Marley, they have become popular worldwide.

Rastafarian supporters protest outside a prison against an order to cut the dreadlocks of the inmates of the institution. Keystone / Harold Quash

The Rastafari are religious groups of Jamaicans, who in the 1930s saw a messiah in the former emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie. He fled the country in 1936, and his followers vowed not to cut their hair until his return to the throne.

The strands of hair were then seen as a sign of strength and as an expression of cultural independence and proud opposition to the white colonialists, who considered the hair “dreadful”. 

How has the media reacted to the debate?

The case is making waves in the media beyond Swiss borders. In Switzerland’s social media, “cultural appropriation” is currently the most discussed topic. It is closely linked to “cancel culture” and “wokeness”. The former means the dismissal of controversial people by not giving them a platform. Wokeness describes awareness of social inequalities such as sexism and racism.

The Tages-Anzeiger newspaper writes: “The Black Lives Matter movement has taken hold of the youth here. For them, European colonialism is present, continues to work in the underbelly of society. The explosive thing is that here a white band is taken off stage in a majority white context. This is what wokeness looks like in Bern.” 

The reggae band “Lauwarm” sing their songs in Swiss German. https://www.instagram.com/lauwarm_music

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung says: “The woke movement likes to sell itself as cosmopolitan and liberal, but its inner contradictions are becoming more and more obvious: everyone should be free to choose and live the gender they feel, but not the hairstyle?”

The movement’s concern “ultimately results in a kind of ‘cultural apartheid’, as Jamaican-American philosopher Jason Damian Hill has pointedly put it,” the newspaper continues.

Singer Dominik Plumettaz. https://www.instagram.com/lauwarm_music

How did the band react?

“We were completely surprised,” Lauwarm singer Dominik Plumettaz told Swiss media. “When we played, there was a good atmosphere.” But during the break, he said, the restaurant told them about the complaints. “After that, we felt uncomfortable and decided to stop. Unfortunately, the critics did not come out publicly and we couldn’t have a conversation with them, which we regret.”

Plumettaz dismisses the accusations of cultural appropriation. “I understand that some people are sensitive to this issue, but music thrives on the mixing of cultures,” he says. “We treat all cultures with respect, but we also stand by the music we play, our appearance and the way we are,” the band wrote on its Instagram account. 

Where do we go from here?

“It’s important to us that we have this discussion – neutral and based on respect,” the lead singer of the band said.

The restaurant also wants to continue the thread and is planning a panel discussion on the topic.

Façade of the restaurant in Bern’s Lorraine neighbourhood. ©keystone/peter Schneider

“The debate will hardly go away. It is too easy to inflate and instrumentalise for political purposes,” wrote the Tages-Anzeiger.

Indeed, a right-wing party has filed a criminal complaint against the venue – for racism.