Women in the African diaspora have been scarred by the traumatic sexualized heritage of slavery; an inheritance that affects their ability to build relationships and identities. In the context of this heritage Condé explores in two different media the impact of trauma and racism on the ability of two different women of the African diaspora to find love and develop identities. In the first work, a play Pension les Alizés, the protagonist an exotic dancer in Paris, cannot rid herself of the stain of slavery or establish lasting relationships and in old age lives lost in illusions clinging to her identity as a once highly desired dancer. In a subsequent work, a novel Histoire de la femme cannibale Condé is more hopeful, the protagonist is able to separate herself from the legacy of slavery; she begins to forge a new identity as she identifies with a time before slavery. Given the two decade separation we see the evolution of Condé’s thinking about possible responses to the collective historical trauma of slavery.