Greeting penned by a poet I fancy in African country (8)
I believe the answer is:
ethiopia
'african country' is the definition.
(Ethiopia is an example)
'greeting penned by a poet i fancy' is the wordplay.
'greeting' becomes 'hi' (hi is a kind of greeting).
'penned by' indicates putting letters inside.
'fancy' indicates an anagram.
'a'+'poet'+'i'='apoeti'
'apoeti' anagrammed gives 'etopia'.
'hi' inserted within 'etopia' is 'ETHIOPIA'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for ethiopia that I've seen before include "Largest country of the Horn of Africa" , "Landlocked Afr. country" , "East African country" , "Country of N Africa, capital Addis Ababa" , "African nation" .)