Cuban for example who has been vilified by me (8)
I believe the answer is:
islander
'cuban for example who has been' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'vilified by me' is the wordplay.
'vilified' becomes 'slander' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'me' becomes 'I'.
'slander' after 'i' is 'ISLANDER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for islander that I've seen before include "person from Cuba?" , "Maybe Corfiot" , "Perhaps Sardinian" , "Inhabitant of Skye, say" , "one from Jersey, perhaps" .)