Naval star running historic part of southern Africa (9)
I believe the answer is:
transvaal
'historic part of southern africa' is the definition.
(historical province of South Africa)
'naval star running' is the wordplay.
'running' indicates anagramming the letters (the letters run around to different places).
'naval'+'star'='navalstar'
'navalstar' with letters rearranged gives 'TRANSVAAL'.
(Other definitions for transvaal that I've seen before include "Former province of South Africa" , "old region" , "Boer republic" , "South African region" .)