This volume brings together an impressive group of researchers to explore the contestation over land in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. While there has been much recent scholarly interest in understanding conflict and governance in the Great Lakes region of Africa, there has been comparatively less focus on rural dimensions. This book is a very useful corrective, which provides a convincing analysis of how the politics of land affects smallholder farmers in the region.

The introduction by Ansoms and Hilhorst succinctly raises the main themes of the volume. The authors highlight the importance of adopting a historical perspective to understanding contemporary cases of land contestation, while recognising significant local, national and global power shifts in the region. Several subsequent chapters show how development narratives, including narratives about transformation and modernisation, provide a justification for weakening the land rights of smallholders.

Ansoms and Hilhorst also emphasise the role of local elites, which is a theme that resonates strongly throughout the volume. Taken together, the chapters show that despite key differences in institutional and normative frameworks across the region, local elites play a pivotal role in land politics. These elites act as intermediaries between local populations and outside actors, and they tend to instrumentalise opportunities that are brought about by changes in regulatory frameworks, private investment and global dynamics.

Several contributions in the volume challenge views that depict rural dwellers as passive victims of land grabbing, and instead point to multiple manifestations of rural agency, resistance and autonomy of action. The chapters by Peemans on the DRC, by Geenen and Hönke on land grabbing by mining companies in South Kivu, and by Bisoka and Ansoms on land grabbing Burundi make this point particularly forcefully.

There is much to commend this volume. Most of the chapters are based on extensive fieldwork, which is reflected in the richly nuanced accounts of local strategies and responses to changes in land tenure. By focusing on the role of local elites, the diverse chapters manage to speak to one another, bringing in sharp relief the interplay between regulatory regimes, institutions, and local and national strategies. While the volume cannot provide a comprehensive investigation of all aspects of land politics throughout the Great Lakes, it succeeds in providing compelling case study accounts of how local politics, power, ethnicity and violence affect accumulation and dispossession, and the resulting impact on local livelihoods. A further analysis of the gendered impact of land policies and strategies would have been welcomed. With the exception of the chapter by van Leeuwen et al. on Uganda, the gender dimension of land politics was not discussed, but would have enriched an already excellent volume.

Development practitioners and policymakers as well as Africanist scholars and researchers will find this volume to be enormously helpful, with its trenchant analysis of particular cases and insightful general conclusions. There is plenty of material for reflection and hopefully the volume will serve as a springboard for further work. Several chapters as well as the conclusion point to the need for pro-smallholder policies and pro-poor development, but the power dynamics uncovered by many of the chapters show why this is so difficult. Is it possible to overcome these dynamics? The volume's findings point to the need for further detailed analysis of specific mechanisms to strengthen the voice and agency of smallholders. The volume goes a long way in helping us understand the opportunities and constraints for local livelihoods in diverse contexts in the Great Lakes.