Island with capital in Indonesia, a country formerly (8)
I believe the answer is:
rhodesia
'country formerly' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'island with capital in indonesia a' is the wordplay.
'island' becomes 'rhodes' (Greek island).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'capital in' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'indonesia' is 'i'.
'rhodes'+'i'+'a'='RHODESIA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rhodesia that I've seen before include "Old state" , "former state" , "Zimbabwe's old name" , "Name of old Commonwealth country" , "Zimbabwe, formerly" .)