Former African U-boats, possibly (6)

I believe the answer is:

basuto

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'former african' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how one could define the other.

'u-boats possibly' is the wordplay.
'possibly' is an anagram indicator.
'u'+'boats'='uboats'
'uboats' is an anagram of 'BASUTO'.

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