In recent years African healing has gained momentum as a topic of popular interest. A range of films, exhibitions, documentaries and novels have created para-academic narratives on African healers and their activities to present the topic to spectators, readers and audiences from outside African cultures. While the dynamics out of which these narratives have evolved are not of immediate concern here, they certainly serve as a background against which South African representations of African healing worked in the country's popular press. Based on the study of South African newspapers and magazines, the paper will examine the voices which marked the popularised debate about African healing since the 1970s. In particular, it will analyse how since healing and its protagonists have been turned into a topic of public consumption among African readers. A South African case study, it will exemplify the interconnections of popular media dynamics in a racially structured society: it will show how medialised messages about healing "sold" to African readers, white or nationalist owners of the press and journalists alike. In addition, the analysis will try to include, as far as possible, the motivations of African healers to receive media coverage because – owing to the reluctance of government and medical authorities to extend official recognition to their craft – continued efforts towards professionalisation had failed in previous decades. Arguing that the popularisation of healers' image helped them re-enter the stage of public debate in South Africa, the paper can be understood as an additional perspective on South Africa's more general transformation of the public sphere and its understanding of health and disease.