Foreign articles for senior figure (5)
I believe the answer is:
elder
'senior figure' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
I cannot understand how the rest of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for elder that I've seen before include "Tribal leader; tree" , "More ancient" , "one with roots" , "Tribal advisor" , "Senior tribal figure" .)