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,
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