African takes Europeans through short canal (8)
I believe the answer is:
sudanese
'african' is the definition.
(Sudanese is an example)
'europeans through short canal' is the wordplay.
'europeans' becomes 'danes' (Danish people).
'through' indicates putting letters inside (inserted letters go through the word).
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'canal' becomes 'Suez' (Suez Canal).
'suez' with its final letter removed is 'sue'.
'danes' inserted within 'sue' is 'SUDANESE'.
'takes' is the link.
(Other definitions for sudanese that I've seen before include "Sue Dean's a native of the African state" , "Bad danseuse from a northeastern African state" , "Native to northeastern African state" , "Africans" , "African inhabitants" .)