Calling himself a Mennonite Muslim - or, more broadly, a Somali Muslim Mennonite Sufi - Togane fords the social and spiritual gaps between the West and his fellow Somali immigrants, many of them refugees from war and oppression.
His urgent and sometimes profane essays - many of them cast as long polemical poems - address political and social issues that remain volatile for Somalis and other Africans. Clannism, political corruption and
religion are frequent topics when Togane addresses his countrymen.
"I write what Somalis don't want to hear," he shouted.
As a young man befriended by Mennonite mission workers in Somalia, Togane attended Eastern Mennonite College, where he studied literature and was among the first Muslims to enroll.
His Mennonized moniker, by which many of his classmates still know him, came about when he was asked to speak at a church. Because his Arabic Moslem name was hard for some to pronounce, Togane jokingly said he was called "Charlie Stoltzfus," and the name stuck.
After a rather rocky period teaching in Philadelphia in the early 1970s, Togane moved to Montreal in 1973, where he is a member of Montreal Mennonite Fellowship.
But because he still identifies deeply with his Islamic background - especially as expressed by the tolerant, peace-centered Sufi tradition - Togane also can be found at a Montreal mosque, attending Friday prayers.
@ sassy black woman. I feel like you don’t hang with much black people am I wrong
Your two black friends are known as the most well behaved black ethnic groups in Canada. The white adjacent Scotian and the assimilated and educated Nigerian. Good job 
Never heard that one before
