Throughout the colonial period in British West Africa, administrative and missionary authorities characterized African healing traditions as superstitious and useless. Indigenous healing shrines were ransacked for museum artifacts and healing customs outlawed. During the 1930s, a group of healers in the Gold Coast Colony calling itself the "Society of African Herbalists" fought to counteract such prejudiced views of their practice and improve their profession. This paper traces the fortunes of this little-known society and that of successive healer organizations including the Ghana Association for Traditional and Psychic Healing (1960) and the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine (1997). The findings draw on extensive archival studies of colonial government reports, healer correspondence, minutes of healer meetings, and interviews with traditional healers conducted in Ghana over the past eight years. The paper argues that a nuanced understanding of the history of intellectual property concerns of healers in Africa is critical to understanding barriers to increased professional legitimacy and cooperation. In the Ghanaian case, the struggle to control information on medicinal plants, including possible cures for cancer and AIDS, has been central to traditional healers movements since the 1930s. Successive healer organizations have struggled to reconcile member cooperation and transparency with concerns over intellectual property rights. Yet, the triple threat of healer, state, and international piracy of secret cures continues to impede efforts to improve the status of traditional healers. In conclusion, the paper argues for a historically informed approach to improving healer legitimacy in Ghana and other contexts.