The lake was visited in 1889 during the Congo Free State by Captain-Commander of the Force Publique (the Belgian colonial military unit in the Congo) Étienne-Christophe-Bernard-Eugène Wilverth, at the time as Commanding Officer of the training camp of Umangi in the town of Lisala. Making a trip to the Ngiri River, he found that a so-called Lake Ibinza did not exist and instead discovered a channel from the village of Moboka to Lake Libanda and from there to the Ngiri, near the village of Bosesera. This channel was named the Bosesera Channel.
