Yo Zushi, from what I can see on the web, is simply part of the southern English indie/nu-folk/alt-country scene. The fact that he has Japanese parents isn't in any way relevant to his cultural milieu or his contributions to it.

In any case, that article was vapid. The one Richard linked to was more substantial, if not exactly news.

I don't see much difference between Black Americans adopting the symbolism of African culture without understanding it and North Americans with Scottish surnames (or childhood emigres with names like "Blair") presuming to speak for Scotland and telling us how our country ought to run itself. Zipporah Gene had a good point.

However: the illustrations in her articles seem a bit misleading. Those bright patterned African dress fabrics are not all of African origin - many of them were produced by the British textile industry for export, and if they were designed with African preferences in mind, the design process must have been collaborative between African and British artists. So it doesn't seem right that Africans not involved in their creation get sole intellectual rights to them and get to say how they're used. (Ditto most Scottish tartans - created by the Sobieskis for the pan-British wool textile industry. Fortunately the Scottish clan-heritage biz's claim to be the arbiters of rightness in all things tartan is now a barely remembered thing of the past).