Authenticité (Zaire) renaming of the nation from the Republic of the Congo to Zaire, a Portuguese mispronunciation of the Kikongo word "nzere" or "nzadi", which translates as "the river that swallows all rivers." It is generally unknown why the head of state chose a Portuguese colonial name instead of an authentic Congolese name. A biography about the President by "Le Monde" journalist Jean-Pierre Langellier, however, traces the naming of the currency "zaire" back to a dinner Mobutu had with his economic adviser Jacques de Groote and Belgian anthropoligst Jan Vansina, where the latter came up with the term as it believably designates,
Constitution of Zaire president as President of Zaire itself with total power over government and judiciary (Articles 28 and 30). Mobutism was declared the state ideology (Article 46) and all Zaireans were automatically made members of the MPR (Article 8). Mobutu himself was exempted from the restrictions on power mentioned in the document and given the power to unilaterally modify the document at will. The state of Zaire's legal system as established by the constitution led Marcel Lihau, a jurist and former president of the Supreme Court of Justice who had fled the country, to remark that "Mobutu is the constitution in Zaire".