Country welcoming leader in gorgeous African city (5)
I believe the answer is:
lagos
'african city' is the definition.
(Nigerian city)
'country welcoming leader in gorgeous' is the wordplay.
'country' becomes 'laos' (Laos is an example).
'welcoming' means one lot of letters goes inside another (in sense of 'inviting in').
'leader in' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'gorgeous' is 'g'.
'laos' placed around 'g' is 'LAGOS'.
(Other definitions for lagos that I've seen before include "Formerly capital of Nigeria" , "Chief port and former capital of Nigeria" , "Strange goals of the Nigerian port" , "Former Nigerian capital" , "African city" .)