This dissertation analyzes cosmological systems of African descent and how they depict a deeper, rooted connection between Africans in diaspora and traditional African religious beliefs practiced prior to the Middle Passage. Grounded in Jacqui Alexander's concept of African cosmological systems as manifestations of locatedness, rootedness and belonging, I explore how these systems map the individual and collective relationships with the Divine. I question the connection between the fragmented figure of the diasporic African and the collectiveness of the African diaspora community in their new social conditions from a spiritual and, more specifically, a Black woman's perspective based on the works that comprise this study. I demonstrate how the protagonists of African descent can be viewed as liminal figures negotiating identity and collectiveness through complex and fluid demonstrations of spirituality. To exemplify this point, the main works I analyze are Um defeito de cor (2006) by Ana Maria Gonçalves, Daughters of the Stone (2009) by Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, When the Spirits Dance Mambo (2004) by Marta Moreno Vega, La isla bajo el mar (2009) by Isabel Allende and Beloved (1987) by Toni Morrison. Through their relationships with the Divine, many of these Black female protagonists occupy not just marginalized and subaltern positions within the dominant society, but also the "third space"? of the ancestral realm of the Orishas. It is through this contact with ancestral roots and the Sacred that, from their liminal positions, these women are able to negotiate issues of crossing, dislocation, meaning, and belonging, many times turning to (re)memory and ancestral knowledge to map their connection with the Divine. In my study, I prioritize historical and literary texts from Brazil, the Caribbean and the United States to develop a comparative, Pan-American study on the way in which African spiritual traditions arrived and mutated within the geographic space portrayed in each of the literary works. Additionally, I share the findings of interviews conducted with three of my main authors, Ana Maria Gonçalves, Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, and Dr. Marta Moreno Vega on issues relating to spirituality, sexuality, gender and identity as women of the African Diaspora.