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African told to keep quiet, essentially (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

hutu

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'african' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'told to keep quiet essentially' is the wordplay.
'told' becomes 'utu' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'keep quiet' becomes 'shh'.
'essentially' says to take the centre.
The centre of 'shh' is 'h'.
'utu' after 'h' is 'HUTU'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for hutu that I've seen before include "A member of one Rwandan people" , "Bantu speaker from Rwanda or Burundi" , "African" , "Member of a Bantu people living in Rwanda and Burundi" , "Rwandan or Burundian" .)

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