Mozambique, a country undergoing rapid transformations driven by the recent discovery of mineral resources, is one of the top destinations for Chinese and Brazilian cooperation and investment in Africa. This article provides an account of the policies, narratives, operational modalities and underlying motivations of Brazilian and Chinese development cooperation in Mozambique. It is particularly interested in understanding how the engagements are perceived and talked about, what drives them and what formal and informal relations are emerging at the level of particular exchanges. The article draws on three cases (1) ProSavana, Brazil's current flagship programme in Mozambique, which aims to transform the country's savanna, spreading along the Nacala corridor, drawing on Brazil's own experience in the Cerrado; (2) the Chinese Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centre (ATDC); and (3) a private Chinese rice investment project in the Xai-Xai irrigation scheme, which builds on a technical cooperation initiative. Commonalities and differences between the Brazilian and Chinese approaches are discussed.

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As Chinese land-based interventions multiply across the African continent, this article focuses on a single Chinese-Senegalese government-run agriculture demonstration centre to provide insight into the daily realities of Chinese-African interactions on African land. Ethnographic methodologies are employed to examine practices and discourses on agricultural governance among Chinese and Senegalese informants. Building on theories of agriculture as performance, I show how distinct repertoires for land management are negotiated and reshaped by different subjects in a kind of improvised dance, where individuals' improvisations lead to unanticipated project outcomes. What emerges is a picture of a Chinese agricultural management regime for African land that is simultaneously fraught with conflict, while also replete with collaboration benefiting some smallholder farmers. This actor-oriented approach provides a critical empirical lens as well as a research framework for engaging more constructively with Chinese in large-scale land acquisitions. I argue that 'land grabbing' must be seen not as a straightforward, linear process of state or corporate takeover of global land, but as a dynamic performance of negotiation among diverse state actors, corporate players and citizens -one that will reshape global development in unanticipated ways.

Chinese agriculture engagements are redefining the 'aid' landscape, moving from a paradigm of development assistance to one of development cooperation mixed with investment. China's leadership asserts that this approach 'infuses new life' into South-South cooperation and 'promote[s] the establishment of a fair and rational new international political and economic order' (GOV 2010: 2). Based on a review of documents and interviews with 30 informants, this article explores Chinese discourses, justifications and critiques underpinning China-Africa cooperation in agriculture. While mainstream Chinese discourse on China-Africa agriculture cooperation focuses on the mutual advantages and the opportunities these create, some are developing alternative frameworks for China-Africa agriculture cooperation. China's approach in African agriculture reflects both current debates and historical experiences of modernising and liberalising China's own rural economy. The article concludes that a more nuanced understanding of Chinese motivations can support constructive and active engagement by African partners with China.

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