The Bill That Fueled a Rebellion

This crisp, never spent five million zaire note is associated with the downfall of a country. Through the late eighties and early nineties, the double digit inflation was spiraling so quickly that an expatriate like me needed to get my dollars changed to Zaires (or "Zs") and spend them immediately on the same day, to maintain parity.

The price of goods climbed higher and higher, as the government printed larger and larger denominations to prop up the economy. As soon as the money was printed, it lost value, and most bills were worth only pennies, nickles, and dimes. Older bills (like the issues of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 200, 500, and so on) notes were used as scrap. At any time during this period, the most valuable bill was worth only about a dollar or so. I used to change dollars into "bricks" (a brick was 25 bundles of 25 Zairian bills, or 625 bills) and stuff a big sack with money, for groceries.

In late 1992, the government ordered up five million bills to replace the one million bill as the largest denomination note, and distributed it to the military as pay. When the soldiers went to the markets to purchase goods, the market sellers were incensed. They had had enough of Mobutu, the inflation, and their starvation lives. They joked obscenely about the five million bill, calling it a "prostate," because Mobutu was being treated for prostate cancer.

Finally, in January 1993, Kinshasha erupted into open rebellion again, because a few armed soldiers shot and killed market women who refused to take the newly minted money. The town went crazy again, turning their frustrations into vandalism and looting that swept the city.

That was the straw that broke many expatriate backs. For the second time, expatriates evacuated, embassies closed permanently (including Sweden, which affected the progress of finding a home for my bonobos in that country), and businesses that were just getting back on their feet after the "events" in 1991, collapsed. Non-governmental organizations went into hibernation for years, because of the distrust for any future stability.

The five million Zaire note was never accepted by the population and it never circulated. It remains a curiosity for collectors.