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Zaire, [c] officially the Republic of Zaire, [d] was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 18 May 1997. Located in Central Africa , it was, by area, the third-largest country in Africa after Sudan and Algeria , and the 11th-largest country in the world from 1965 to 1997.
View history; Tools. Tools. move to sidebar hide. Actions Read; Edit; View history; General ... Zaire is a given name and surname. Notable people with the name include:
Shortly afterwards, the Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique published a critical editorial in which it suggested that the logical extreme of the new reforms would be for Mobutu to rename himself since Joseph-Désiré was clearly a name of European origin. Embracing this, Mobutu announced in January 1972 that he would repudiate his Christian name.
In 1971, Mobutu renamed the country the Republic of Zaire, [26] its fourth name change in eleven years and its sixth overall. The Congo River was renamed the Zaire River. During the 1970s and 1980s, Mobutu was invited to visit the United States on several occasions, meeting with U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush ...
On independence the country adopted the name "Republic of the Congo" (République du Congo). The French colony of Middle Congo (Moyen Congo) also chose the name Republic of the Congo upon its independence, so the two countries were more commonly known as Congo-Léopoldville and Congo-Brazzaville, after their capital cities.
The river was known as Zaire during the 16th and 17th centuries; Congo seems to have replaced Zaire gradually in English usage during the 18th century, and Congo is the preferred English name in 19th-century literature, although references to Zahir or Zaire as the name used by the inhabitants remained common. [14]
Zara is a feminine given name and a surname.. It is a spelling variant of the Arabic female name Zahra. [1] which means beautiful, radiant, and divine. [2]It is possible that the name has Hebrew origins in the word saraja, translating to sovereign, ruler, or a woman of high rank.
Africanization has referred to the modification of placenames and personal names to reflect an "African" identity. In some cases, changes are not only of transliteration but of the European name. [2] In many cases during the colonial period, African placenames were Anglicized or Francized.