American leaves queen heading to the West Country (5)
I believe the answer is:
niger
'country' is the definition.
(African country)
'american leaves queen heading to the west' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'queen' could be 'er' (abbreviation for Elizabeth Regina) and 'er' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for niger that I've seen before include "foreign banker" , "African country dominated by the Sahara, until 1969 a French colony" , "The black" , "Part of Africa" , "River of West Africa" .)