Johan Vonkeman
Dutch missionary
Johan "Hans" Vonkeman (18 February 1931 - 28 October 2010) was born in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. He attended university in Kampen, the Netherlands, and later in life at UNISA in Pretoria, South Africa.
He was ordained in 1957 and in 1958 he departed to South Africa as a missionary accompanied by his wife, Rens Vonkeman. The Reformed Mission Enkumane was launched in 1960, an initiative of the Free Reformed Church in Kampen, the Netherlands. The Trust Farm Groothoek in the centre of eNkumane was chosen as a mission area. Vonkeman held the first service at eNkumane on Christmas Day 1959 in a local homestead. Over time the mission expanded, a church and a clinic were built on the slopes of eThafeni, as well as accommodation and facilities for those attending church-run courses.
He retired as a missionary in 1990 and continued to volunteer as a crisis counselor and guest preacher in his local church. In the 1990s Vonkeman contributed to the Dutch Reformed Church Newspaper "Opbouw" as a columnist. In 1995 he released a collection of these writings in a book named "Door Zoeloe's geboeid".
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Johan Vonkeman” as dutch missionary. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as dutch missionary. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q106190195. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1931, 2010, 1957 and 1958.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Johan Vonkeman”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Johan Vonkeman primary sources, Johan Vonkeman archive and Johan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Johan Vonkeman”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Johan Vonkeman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.