Local Fulbright Scholar to study slave artifacts in Jamaica

Justin Dunnavant, of Frederick , graduated recently from Howard University. He studied in Africa this past summer and will spend the next 10 months to a year in Jamaica as a Fulbright Scholar.

Suggested hed: Local Fulbright Scholar studies slave artifacts in Jamaica

Justin Dunnavant is not your average 21-year-old.

The Frederick resident graduated from Gov. Thomas Johnson High School at age 15 and continued on to Howard University, where he earned two undergraduate degrees in May 2009 -- history and anthropology.

This summer, Dunnavant marked his 21st birthday in Africa.

In Kenya and Tanzania, he studied Swahili, which is a trade and governmental language over much of East Africa and in the Congo region. He turned 21 in Senegal and finished his summer in Gambia.

"I fell into Swahili," Dunnavant said. He had scholarship money for a semester abroad and his first choice didn't work out, so he headed to Africa with a professor. There he learned his fifth language. He already knew English, Arabic, Kiswahili and a little French.

"Unasema kiswahili," Dunnavant asked. That means, "Do you speak Swahili?"

"I'm conversational," he said.

Dunnavant is looking at the University of California at Berkeley, Syracuse University and the University of Florida for graduate school. Each has a respected anthropology department. He hopes to earn a master's degree and doctorate in the next seven years.

For the next 10 months to a year, as a Fulbright Scholar, he will study in Jamaica.

"I'm going to study artifacts that enslaved Africans would have either brought to Jamaica or recreated in Jamaica," he said.

Dunnavant will to split his time between courses at the University of West Indies, researching at local archives and volunteering at Liberty Hall.

Founded by the Jamaican nationalist leader Marcus Garvey, Liberty Hall is now a community center run by the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the African Communities League runs the center.

Dunnavant explained his interest in Jamaica: "Partially because it's part of my history and second part because in a lot of ways I think it is unexplored. A lot of people have done history studies and some people have done anthropological work, but not too many people have done archeology. It's not exactly new territory, but there's still a lot of room for growth."

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