Government lies at the fore of understanding a country in Africa (5)
I believe the answer is:
ghana
'in africa' is the definition.
('Ghana' is part of 'africa')
'government lies at' is the wordplay.
'government' becomes 'g'.
'lies at' becomes 'hana' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'g'+'hana'='GHANA'
'the fore of understanding a country' acts as a link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
(Other definitions for ghana that I've seen before include "Woody raspberry stem" , "Language deriving from ancient Egyptian" , "Ah, nag one into going to Africa" , "West African country getting independence from the UK in 1957" , "African country, W. of Togo" .)