Among the Muslims in British Guiana who were aware of events taking place in the subcontinent, Jinnah was a hero to them. The Muslim leadership in British Guiana saw him as a “saviour of the Muslims” in India who were being slaughtered by Hindus in the wanton Hindu/Muslim violence.²¹ They saw him as their leader as well, and he is frequently referred to as “our” leader.²² For the brief period that he lived after the creation of Pakistan the Muslim print media in British Guiana carried many stories of his social and political life. Their affection for Jinnah is succinctly put together in a poem titled, “Ode to Qaid-E-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah.”²³ It was written by A. Samadeen who hailed from Albion, in the county of Berbice and was published in Islam and Nur-E-Islam in January 1950 after the death of Jinnah. This journal being the only major Muslim periodical of its time and the voice of British Guiana’s largest Islamic organisation capsulated the sentiments those locals held of Jinnah.

Jinnah the hero, reads the poem, was a star who rose “in that Eastern land, and brought forth with it a hero, brave. That star was the birth of Pakistan, and guiding it came Jinnah, his people to save.”²⁴ He was seen as a “giant” who fought against the “stalwarts of Hindustan” who wanted to subjugate the Muslims. Jinnah led the azadi movement or the freedom movement. The Qaid-E-Azam was called, “son of azad,” “son of freedom and a “faithful soldier of Islam.” Jinnah sudden death was a solemn moment among the Muslims of British Guiana and prayers were held at mosques nation-wide. The Muslims of British Guiana and their brethren in Pakistan while in sorrow shouted, “Pakistan Zindabad,” or long live Pakistan. The emotions of Jinnah’s death among the Muslims of British Guiana is capsulated in the following stanza: “Oh Noble Monarch of a new-born state, Oh faithful soldier of Islam, with broken hearts on this cruel date, we bid thee our last and humble Salam.”