African republic against holding up talk (5)
I believe the answer is:
gabon
'african republic' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'against holding up talk' is the wordplay.
'against' becomes 'on' (on can mean by or up against).
'holding up' says to put letters next to each other (in a down clue, some letters go below others).
'talk' becomes 'gab' (I've seen this in another clue).
'on' put after 'gab' is 'GABON'.
(Other definitions for gabon that I've seen before include "Republic on the west coast of Africa" , "W. Afr. equatorial state" , "state of Africa" , "West African nation" , "French spoken here" .)