An African country with a youth backing religious leader (5,4)
I believe the answer is:
dalai lama
'religious leader' is the definition.
(Tibetan religious leader)
'an african country with a youth backing' is the wordplay.
'an' becomes 'a'.
'african country' becomes 'mali' (country in Africa).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'youth' becomes 'lad' (I've seen this before).
'backing' says the letters should be written backwards.
'a'+'mali'+'a'+'lad'='amalialad'
'amalialad' written backwards gives 'DALAI LAMA'.
(Other definitions for dalai lama that I've seen before include "eastern leader" , "Former Tibetan ruler" , "Titular Tibetan" , "World's Buddhist leader, once ruler of Tibet" , "Spiritual leader of Tibetans" .)