This is a remarkable collection of songs. I am a heretic when it comes to singing songs.
I don't think it has to interpreted by those who are exclusively from the culture. A good song is a good song. If you're singing a foreign song, it's respectful to get the pronunciation and the meanings of words right. But I have no problem with using different instruments and arrangements coming from a different culture. A lot of these songs could be sung with a five-string banjo accompaniment. I never had a problem with Pete Seeger singing a song in Spanish, Hebrew, German or African .....even Hungarian or Danish if you can master those difficult words.
Singers ought to be able to interpret songs their own way.

I must say that I had a problem with Eileen Farrell's attempt to sing the blues but that was due to her lack of understanding of that medium.

This thread is so important because a good song travels around the world and binds us as humanity together.

When we were with the Weavers, we were open to criticism because we were not from the cultural background of some of the foreign songs we sang. But we made a respectful attempt to understand the song and its environment.

When you think of it isn't this the folk process? A variant of a song comes from one part of the world and becomes a new song in another.