Willem Jan Boswinkel was born on 06-10-1947 in the small town of Hengelo in the eastern part of The Netherlands.
He studied tropical agriculture at the reputable State Agricultural College in Deventer (BSc. level). Since 1970, he has been employed by consulting engineering firms and rural development organizations in a number of countries in Africa and Latin America.
Wim Boswinkel left his native Holland in 1970 to travel and work in many places around the world. He came to Zimbabwe in 1988, where, together with his wife, in 2000 he opened a small motel (with a nature park) near Bulawayo in Matabeleland. Corinne and Wim have 2 daughters: Sandra (b. 1991) and Saskia (b. 1997). He has also 3 children from a previous marriage, that all live in Holland: Erik (b. 1972), Valerie (b. 1976) and Evelien (b. 1981). He returned to Holland in 2009 from where he carries out agro-sociological consultancies in the Third World and acts a a guide for special needs travellers to Southern Africa.
Wim Boswinkel's main interests outside his profession are history (especially from Southern Africa) and organic farming (he served as the secretary-treasurer of the Permaculture Association of Matabeleland). During his expatriate years he contributed numerous articles to Dutch papers and magazines. A number of his short stories appeared in several books that were published by A'ma Books. In 1996, he wrote Erina, his first novel, and in 2010 he expects to complete a second novel which is set in Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
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Last modified 7 May 2010