Article by magazine about graduate crossing one African country (3,6)
I believe the answer is:
the gambia
'crossing one african country' is the definition.
'the gambia' can be an answer for 'country' (The Gambia is an example). I'm unsure of the 'crossing one african' bit.
'article by magazine about graduate' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'the' (the 'definite article' part of speech).
'by magazine' becomes 'gaia' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'graduate' becomes 'mb'.
'gaia' enclosing 'mb' is 'gambia'.
'the'+'gambia'='THE GAMBIA'
(Another definition for the gambia that I've seen is " Country".)