Sandra Evers is associate professor in Anthropology at VU University Amsterdam. Her research and publications deal with migration, slavery, cultural transmission and land issues in Madagascar within the context of globalisation, natural resource management, poverty and sustainable development. Dr Evers directs a research programme on foreign large-scale land acquisitions in Africa and Madagascar.Caroline Seagle is a PhD candidate at the VU University Amsterdam. An environmental anthropologist by training, she was a recipient in the Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI) small grants competition and published in the Journal of Peasant Studies special issue on Green Grabbing (2012). Froukje Krijtenburg is a post-doctoral fellow affiliated to VU University Amsterdam specializing in discourses of land use and access in Africa. Her current research explores stakeholder mediations of a foreign land deal in Kenya. She wrote Cultural Ideologies of Peace and Conflict: A Socio-Cognitive Study of Giryama Discourse (Kenya) (PhD dissertation VU Amsterdam, 2007).

'... this volume is an excellent contribution to the debate about land grabbing and a useful reminder about the role about the African State in these processes'.Tor A. Benjaminsen in The Journal of African History, 56, pp 175-176.

• ContentsList of Illustrations List of Contributors Introduction: Contested Landscapes—Analysing the Role of the State, Land Reforms and Privatization in Foreign Land Deals in Africa Sandra J.T.M. Evers, Caroline Seagle and Froukje KrijtenburgSECTION 1 THE RECONFIGURATION OF RURAL LANDSCAPES AND LIVELIHOODS IN THE RECENT SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICAN LANDCorporate Land Deals, Dispossession and the Future of FarmingBen WhiteA Critical Review of the Policy Debate on Large Scale Land Acquisition: Fighting the Symptoms or Killing the Heart? Annelies ZoomersChallenges and Risks for Bilateral Relations from Foreign Large-Scale Land Acquisitions Michael J. StraussSECTION 2THE CREATION OF FERTILE GROUND FOR THE STRUCTURING OF FOREIGN LARGE-SCALE LAND ACQUISITIONS: LAND REFORMS, PRIVATIZATION AND COMPETING JURISDICTIONSLand Consolidation and the Expansion of Game Farming in South Africa: Impacts on Farm Dwellers’ Livelihoods and Rights to Land in the Eastern CapeNancy Andrew, Femke Brandt, Marja Spierenburg, Dhoya Snijders and Nomalanga MkhizeDevelopment and Dispossession: Impacts of Land Reform in BotswanaMaria Sapignoli and Robert K. HitchcockDomestic and Foreign Investment in Irrigable Land in Mali: Tensions between the Dream of Large-Scale Farming and the Reality of Family FarmingAmandine Adamczewski, Perrine Burnod, Hermine Papazian, Yacouba Coulibaly, Jean-Philippe Tonneau and Jean-Yves JaminConflict between Industrial and Artisanal Mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Drc): Case Studies fromKatanga, Ituri and KivuRuben de KoningSECTION 3STAKEHOLDER INTERACTIONS AND COMPETING VALUATIONS OF LANDShifting Patterns of Land Use and Ownership in Burkina Faso with a Case-Study of Two Kurumba Villages—Bourzanga and Pobe-MengaoLucjan BuchalikBeing a Foreigner in One’s Country: Mobility, Land Acquisition and Investments in Cameroon Evelyne N. TegomohAncestors and Title Deeds: Rural Transformation in 20th Century South Africa and the Consolidation of Ethnic-Based IdentitiesGitte PostelCompeting Rhetoric in the Context of Foreign Land Acquisitions: The Case of “New Nigeria” Akachi Odoemene‘Keeping this Land Safe’: Stakeholder Conceptualisations of Protection in the Context of a Mijikenda (Kenya) World Heritage Site Froukje KrijtenburgIndex