Dr. Chipo Dendere discusses Death, Diversion, and Departure

Dr. Chipo Dendere, Assistant Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at Wellesley College, recently presented her new book Death, Diversion, and Departure: Voter Exit and the Persistence of Authoritarianism in Zimbabwe (Cambridge University Press, 2025).

There are many explanations for the survival of long-serving political parties, from access to state wealth to the use of excessive violence. A yet unexplored reason, particularly for parties that have survived under extreme conditions, is voter exit. In Death, Diversion, and Departure, Dr. Dendere shows that voter exit creates new opportunities for authoritarian regime survival. With an empirical focus on Zimbabwe, Dendere centers two types of voter exit: death and migration. She shows how the exit of young, urban, and working professional voters because of mass death due to the AIDS pandemic and mass migration in the wake of economic decline has increased the resilience of a regime that may have otherwise lost power. With authoritarianism on the rise globally and many citizens considering leaving home, Death, Diversion, and Departure provides timely insights into the impact of voter exit.

Five students received a complimentary copy of the book, which the author signed.

#IJLNexus