French dictionary gets bad rap over Congolese banana leaf dish

Kinshasa: Diners flock to the terrace of Mother Antho Aembe s restaurant in downtown Kinshasa to enjoy liboke , blissfully unaware of the linguistic...

Kinshasa: Diners flock to the terrace of Mother Antho Aembe's restaurant in downtown Kinshasa to enjoy "liboke", blissfully unaware of the linguistic brouhaha surrounding the Democratic Republic of Congo's national dish.

Made by grilling fish from the mighty River Congo wrapped in a banana-leaf parcel with spices, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and chillies, liboke enjoys cult status across the central African country.

But liboke's inclusion in one of France's top dictionaries has upset Congolese intellectuals, who say its compilers have failed to capture the full meaning of a word derived from the local Lingala language and closely associated with national identity.

The Petit Larousse dictionary -- an encyclopaedic tome considered a foremost reference on the French language -- announced in May it was including liboke in its 2026 edition.

Its definition: "a dish made from fish or meat, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked over charcoal."