African mentioning child's foot (5)
I believe the answer is:
tutsi
'african' is the definition.
(the Tutsi are an African ethnic group)
'mentioning child's foot' is the wordplay.
'mentioning' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'child's foot' becomes 'tootsie' (childish term for a foot).
'tootsie' sounds like 'TUTSI'.
(Other definitions for tutsi that I've seen before include "Person from Burundi" , "Member of a Bantu people of Rwanda and Burundi" , "Rwandan Bantu" , "Rwandan group" , "Ethnic group of Rwanda and Burundi" .)