Politicians such as Jaap Marais (Obituary, August 19th) feared that even talk about reform would undermine white rule, just as in China today the Communist leaders fiercely refuse to acknowledge the possibility of any alternative form of government.
The Union men fought fiercely; most refusing to surrender, even after their ammunition ran out.
Strong-willed and fiercely self-protective (she refused to allow the right side of her face to be photographed, feeling that the light took better to the high, rounded cheekbones of her left profile), Colbert today seems a less engaging performer than contemporaries like Carole Lombard and Bette Davis, perhaps because she guarded her image too carefully to take many chances.
"I will refuse, fiercely and until I die, to choose between the bitterness of the military or manipulators of religion," he wrote.
To take medications as part of the battle is to battle fiercely, and to refuse them is as ludicrous as entering a modern war on horseback.
Her staffers, unlike Bill's, are so fiercely loyal, they refuse to leak a morsel of gossip to the press.
What keeps me going is seeing the ways we have loved ourselves and each other, deeply and fiercely enough to refuse to accept what is, and insisting on building our community upon that love.
Mr Gul's fiercely pro-secular predecessor, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, refused to invite veiled women to the presidential palace.
That year the fiercely independent AmaZulu people had refused to accept British rule, and on January 22 Chelmsford's force of 1,700 soldiers was attacked at Isandlwana; only 400 survived.
