Democratic Republic of the Congo Congo and the Republic of Zaire, before returning to its current name the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the time of independence, the country was named the Republic of Congo-Léopoldville to distinguish it from its neighbour the Republic of the Congo-Brazzaville. With the promulgation of the Luluabourg Constitution on 1 August 1964, the country became the DRC, but was renamed to Zaire (a past name for the Congo River) on 27 October 1971 by President Mobutu Sese Seko as part of his "Authenticité" initiative. The word "Zaire" is from a Portuguese adaptation of a Kikongo word "nzere" ("river"), a
Zairean zaire zaïres" instead of "cinq millions "de" zaïres". The New Zaire (French: "Nouveau Zaïre"), symbol "NZ", ISO 4217 code ZRN, replaced the first zaire in 1993 at an exchange rate of 1 new zaire = 3,000,000 old zaires. It was subdivided into 100 new makuta (symbol: "NK"). This currency was only issued in banknote form and suffered from similarly high inflation to its predecessor. The new zaire was replaced by the Congolese franc again on 1 July 1998, at an exchange rate of 1 franc = 100,000 new zaires shortly after the Republic of Zaire became the Democratic Republic of the