African country’s limited by class system rigidly applied (9)

I believe the answer is:

formalism

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'system rigidly applied' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'african country's limited by class' is the wordplay.
'african country's' becomes 'Mali's' (country in Africa).
'limited by' indicates putting letters inside (limit can mean to contain or border off).
'class' becomes 'form' (form class is a kind of class).
'malis' placed into 'form' is 'FORMALISM'.

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I've seen this clue in The Times.

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