Foreign correspondent with a knowledge and love of Africa who worked for the Guardian, the Independent and the BBC
![Alex Duval Smith obituary](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/20137b9013db6a5bd2d5b160878da2766d1ad38b/0_210_4000_2400/master/4000.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=ed2c6eb55643cfe12265724cf835a1cc)
The journalist Alex Duval Smith, who has died of cancer aged 55, was a free spirit with a remarkable gift for connecting with others across social, language or cultural barriers.
For more than two decades she worked as a reporter and correspondent in European and African countries, for the Guardian, the Independent, the Observer, the
BBC, Radio
France International and France 24. She had a deep knowledge of and love for Africa and was a citizen of the world – with two nationalities and three languages; she had lived in almost a dozen countries.