Zaire /zɑːˈɪər/, officially the Republic of Zaire (French: République du Zaïre; French pronunciation: ​[za.iʁ]) was the name of a Central African state, now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, between 1971 and 1997. The state's name derives from the name of the Congo River, called Zaire in Portuguese, adapted from the Kongo word nzere or nzadi ("river that swallows all rivers").