I would follow Sailor Smuts in Ivory Coast city (7)
I believe the answer is:
abidjan
'ivory coast city' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'i would follow sailor smuts' is the wordplay.
'i would' becomes 'I'd'.
'follow' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'sailor' becomes 'ab' (abbreviation for able seaman).
'smuts' becomes 'Jan' (Jan Smuts was a South African prime minister).
'id' after 'ab' is 'abid'.
'abid'+'jan'='ABIDJAN'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for abidjan that I've seen before include "Ivory Coast city" , "Ivory Coast port" , "Former capital of Ivory Coast" , "African port" , "old capital" .)