Joining up of everyone that is kept outside African party (8)
I believe the answer is:
alliance
'joining up of everyone that is kept outside african party' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'everyone that is kept outside african party' is the wordplay.
'everyone' becomes 'all' (all people).
'that is' becomes 'ie' (short for Latin 'id est', 'that is').
'kept outside' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'african party' becomes 'anc' (African National Congress, South African party).
'ie' enclosing 'anc' is 'iance'.
'all'+'iance'='ALLIANCE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for alliance that I've seen before include "Federation" , "Formal agreement" , "Union for mutual benefit" , "Association for mutual benefit" , "Wanting marriage" .)