Africans, as in Mali, left out (5)
I believe the answer is:
masai
'africans' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'as in mali left out' is the wordplay.
'in mali left' becomes 'mai' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'out' is an insertion indicator.
'as' going inside 'mai' is 'MASAI'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for masai that I've seen before include "Kenyan language" , "A semi-nomadic people of Kenya and Tanzania" , "East African pastoralist" , "East African native" , "Member of an African pastoral people" .)