This article examines how Calixthe Beyala, by using two key concepts, féminitude and négritude, engages in a dialogue with different European or Occidental feminist movements on the one side and the myths and traditions of the African continent on the other side. She adresses, one could say, Simone de Beauvoir's question "What is a woman?", as well as the question asked by the négritude writers, "What is a negro?". The analysis of the opposition between the universal and the particular will show the complexity of the question of identity in Calixthe Beyala's work.