Old African butcher scraping trimmings from plate (4)
I believe the answer is:
amin
'old african butcher' is the definition.
(Idi Amin, former dictator of Uganda)
'scraping trimmings from plate' is the wordplay.
'scraping trimmings from' says to take the centre (trimmings can refer to the edges of something).
'plate' becomes 'lamina' (I've seen this before).
The middle of 'lamina' is 'AMIN'.
(Other definitions for amin that I've seen before include "'Last King of Scotland'" , "Ugandan dictator" , "Idi . . . . Once ruled Uganda tyrannically" , "'Idi ..., former Ugandan ruler (4)'" , "Former African despot" .)