966. Congo, Pointe Noire, 2007



Jessica Yé on the left arrived in Brazzaville penniless in April 2000. Seven years on 80 members of her extend family have joined her. She is active in numerous sectors: restaurants, nightclubs, shops selling imported goods, a factory producing aluminum window frames, and cement import. Her husband Ke Qian Zhang, known as Philippe (on the right) was a journalist in Brazzaville for Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency. He resigned to takeover the direction of Sicofor, the family timber company that owns 812.612 hectares in logging concessions in Congo. Their daughter is called Bang Bang which means “super strong”. They are photographed on the terrace of the Bel Air, the restaurant that Jessica has just bought on the beachfront of Pointe Noire, the major commercial and oil city of the country.