In a statement, the organizer apologized for “awareness gaps”. The audience should have been better “protected” before the performance.
Because they wear rastas and play reggae: the dialect band “Lauwarm” had to cancel a concert in Bern prematurely.
The Bernese dialect band “Lauwarm” is known for its repertoire of reggae, indi-world and pop music. Exactly this repertoire made sure that the concert had to be canceled at a performance in Bern’s cultural venue Brasserie Lorraine.
In a message on Brasserie Lorraine’s Facebook page, the organizers said: During the group’s performance, numerous concertgoers expressed “uncomfortable with the situation”. This is because the musicians in the band “Lauwarm” – five white men – with Rastafarian hairstyles played reggae music.
It’s about cultural appropriation. Rastafarian hairstyles and reggae music are basically reserved for indigenous – i.e. dark-skinned – Jamaicans. Because the ancestors of these Jamaicans experienced exclusion and racism through colonization and oppression. This is addressed in reggae music, which means it is not appropriate for white people to play reggae or wear rastas.
Irritated reactions after abandoning the concert
The Brasserie Lorraine, as the organiser, then apologized on social networks for this alleged “takeover of a culture by members of another culture”. She regrets that the performance “triggered bad feelings in people”.
The fact that the band was invited to perform at all is due to their own “gaps in awareness”. As the organizer, the audience “should have been better protected,” it said. Lorraine therefore wanted to continue discussing the topic in order to create understanding. A panel discussion on cultural appropriation is planned for August 18th.
However, the discussions on social networks started shortly after the publication of the organizer’s public apology. Many of the reactions were characterized by a lack of understanding: in most cases, music was taken over from another culture. If one followed the reasoning of the organizers, Swiss musicians would only be allowed to play Ländler, all other types of music are taboo, since pop music, which has its origins in Great Britain, or country, a music style from the USA, already from another culture would come from.
It’s the same with the hair, someone commented irritated on Lorraine’s statement. Is long, straight hair reserved for whites, while braided hair or rastas may only be worn by blacks?
The example of Bob Marley, the most important representative and co-founder of reggae music and probably the most famous Rasta wearer, shows that the argumentation of the Bernese cultural venue may not quite work. Although Marley was Jamaican and grew up there when the island was still a British colony, one parent was not of Jamaican but British origin: Marley had a black mother, but a white father.