File:THE MEN WHO WOULD NOT MARCH. CONCORDIA, NORTHERN CAPE MONUMENT.jpg

English: Text: "THE MEN WHO WOULD NOT MARCH. / This memorial honours Captain Francis Phillips and his 110 / comrades in the Concordia Town Guard for their actions on April 4 / 1902. The Coloured population of Concordia were in danger / because the men, who in their everyday lives were mine labourers in / the Namaqua Copper Company, had willingly joined the Town Guard / raised by the British under martial law. If overrun, they faced / massacre by a 1,000-strong Boer force under General J.C. Smuts. / But when ordered to march the 15km to the stronghold of O'okiep / when the Boers approached these men, Nama, Coloured and / British mutinied and refused to leave without their families. Their / armed presence daunted the Boers and Concordia was saved thanks / to the love and courage of these men honoured on this monument."

At present Concordia is home to the proud descendants of heroes of a different kind. All over the world one finds monuments and statues commemorating heroes of war. But these heroes of peace in a faraway South African town— once the operational centre in a war with no winners— chose the road less travelled. We saluted them while the war between Russia and Ukraine was destroying lives, hopes and the joy of living.