Propitious start for government in African country (6)
I believe the answer is:
benign
'propitious' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'start for government in african country' is the wordplay.
'start for' says to take the initial letters.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'african country' becomes 'Benin' (country in Africa).
The initial letter of 'government' is 'g'.
'g' inserted inside 'benin' is 'BENIGN'.
(Other definitions for benign that I've seen before include "Kindly, pleasant" , "'Pleasant and kind, not harmful (6)'" , "Genial, kindly" , "Kindly; not harmful" , "Favourable" .)