African leader needing staff from French city (7)
I believe the answer is:
mandela
'african leader' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.
'staff from french city' is the wordplay.
'staff' becomes 'man' (as in staffing or manning a particular place).
'from french' becomes 'de' ('from' in French).
'city' becomes 'LA' (Los Angeles).
'man'+'de'+'la'='MANDELA'
'needing' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mandela that I've seen before include "Former president of South Africa" , "South African political hero" , "Nelson lengthily detained" , "Nelson --, South African statesman" , "Former prisoner" .)