Stephen William Smith est un anthropologue, biographe, historien, journaliste, écrivain et professeur d'études africaines à l'université Duke. De nationalité américaine, il a été journaliste spécialiste de l'Afrique ou éditeur pour différents organes de presse français dont Libération, Le Monde, Radio France International et Reuters.

Stephen William Smith is an American anthropologist, biographer, editor, historian, journalist, and writer. He is a former editor of the French daily newspaper Libération and the former deputy editor of the foreign desk at Le Monde. For many years he worked as a traveling correspondent for Radio France International and Reuters News Agency in West and Central Africa.

Stephen Smith is a leading expert on contemporary Africa. After thirty years as a journalist at Libération and Le Monde, he is now Professor of African Studies at Duke University.