
Erin Conway-Smith is southern Africa correspondent for The Economist. She also contributes to Foreign Policy, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, The Africa Report and others. Previously she was senior Africa correspondent for GlobalPost.
Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Canada (where her career began as a papergirl, age 9), Erin studied at Western University and has a master's degree from Carleton University. She was a delegate to the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa programme in 2016.
Erin has been based in Johannesburg since 2009 and from 2005-2009 in Beijing where she was the editor of Asia Weekly magazine and contributed freelance stories to the International Herald Tribune, The Globe and Mail, Maclean's magazine and CBC Radio.
Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Canada (where her career began as a papergirl, age 9), Erin studied at Western University and has a master's degree from Carleton University. She was a delegate to the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa programme in 2016.
Erin has been based in Johannesburg since 2009 and from 2005-2009 in Beijing where she was the editor of Asia Weekly magazine and contributed freelance stories to the International Herald Tribune, The Globe and Mail, Maclean's magazine and CBC Radio.