Route followed by an Afghan tribesman (6)
I believe the answer is:
pathan
'afghan tribesman' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'route followed by an' is the wordplay.
'route' becomes 'path' (synonyms).
'followed by' says to put letters next to each other.
'path'+'an'='PATHAN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pathan that I've seen before include "Afghan" , "Member of majority people of Afghanistan" , "Afghanistani" .)