Simon Gqubule’s biography of Seth Mokitimi (1904-1971), South African Methodist minister, highlights two stages of his career in particular: his decade and a half (1937-51) at Healdtown educational institution as housemaster and chaplain, and then his year as the first black President of the Methodist Conference (1964-5). An overview of his whole life takes up barely a fifth of the text, while sermons from these two key eras fill half the book. Thus the biographical focus is particularly on Mokitimi as preacher and denominational figurehead. Other analytical slants which have been adopted rate his relationship with British missionaries (to whom he expressed himself deeply indebted); explore his participation in international Methodist and ecumenical circles over four decades; or probe his degree of rootedness in his African heritage, his contribution to ‘Africanisation’, as compared with another Methodist colleague. Yet Mokitimi was also a spokesman for Christian multiracialism from the 1930s to the 1960s, and his life, sermons and writings provide a way in to the choices and dilemmas for devout Africans as segregation gave way to apartheid. He backed liberal and ecumenical organisations which endorsed the ‘equality of believers’ (the evocative phrase at the heart of Richard Elphick’s important recent book). Significantly, however, while more radical or nationalist Christians, both black and white, ended up critiquing the movements to which Mokitimi remained loyal, they retained their affection and respect for his sincerity and fervour. His life thus offers a chance to evaluate the achievements and shortcomings of the Christian multiracialism of his day.