Main directions given by African leader (3)
I believe the answer is:
sea
'main' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'directions given by african leader' is the wordplay.
'directions' becomes 'se' (I've seen this in other clues).
'given by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'leader' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'african' is 'a'.
'se'+'a'='SEA'
(Other definitions for sea that I've seen before include "70% of the earth's surface" , "eg Galilee" , "Cod's home?" , "Ocean area" , "E.g Aral or Weddell" .)