Stephen William Smith is an American biographer, editor, journalist, and writer.
For many years he worked as a traveling correspondent for Radio France International and Reuters News Agency in West and Central Africa.
[1] After working as a freelance journalist for a few years, Smith joined the staff of Libération in 1986, replacing Pierre Haski as the paper's Africa Editor.
Smith is the author of numerous French language books and academic publications related to the anthropology and history of Africa, including books on Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, and Somalia.
He has also written a number of biographies on notable African people, including General Mohamed Oufkir (1998), Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa (2000), and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (2007).