increasingly powerful connotation of ethnic polarization: Just as the Tutsi oligarchy derived an additional sense of corporate solidarity from its exposure to Western education and technology the Hutu as a group were made all the more conscious of their cultural and economic separateness by the ruthless enforcement of corvee labour and other types of [taxes The result of this growing ethnic polarization was the bloody 1959"Social Revolution that, first and foremost, targeted the Tutsi ruling elite, secondarily targeted the Belgian colonizers, and that eventually resulted in Rwanda's independence in 1962. This revolution was driven by a populist fervor, and demanded democratic reforms that would allow for popular participation in the political structure as well as an address to the widespread poverty and general rural discontent that characterized the majority Hutu population "Although the increasing ethnic polarization evident across Rwanda in the late 1950s gave it the "appearance of an ethnic revolution, the 1959 revolution, as Catharine Newbury explains, is best understood as a revolution of the peasants as a class rather than the Hutu as an ethnic group. Furthermore, although "Hutu consciousness was certainly a central driving force of the revolution as well as a product of the revolutionary movement, Newbury emphasizes that it was not Hutu leaders who"created this Hutu ethnic consciousness. Rather, she writes, " it would be more accurate to argue that tutsi chiefs, through their use and abuse of power, created Hutu consclousness46 Over forty years have passed since the formal end of the colonial era in Rwanda in 1962, but the patterns of ethnicity as the basis of political organization and the concomitant pattern of deeply embedded ethnic polarization have continued to characterize Rwanda s political environment over the course of the past forty years. As Mamdani underlines, the 1959"Social Revolution although it succeeded in overturning both Tutsi and Belgian political dominance in Rwanda 4 Lemarchand, African Kingships in Perspective, 79 C. Newbury, The Cohesion ofOppression, 195; Pottier, 124 C. Newbury, The Cohesion ofOppression, I Ibid. 181 45Ibid.180-206 46Ibid.20911 an increasingly powerful connotation of ethnic polarization:40 “Just as the Tutsi oligarchy derived an additional sense of corporate solidarity from its exposure to Western education and technology, the Hutu as a group were made all the more conscious of their cultural and economic separateness by the ruthless enforcement of corvée labour and other types of [taxes].”41 The result of this growing ethnic polarization was the bloody 1959 “Social Revolution” that, first and foremost, targeted the Tutsi ruling élite, secondarily targeted the Belgian colonizers, and that eventually resulted in Rwanda’s independence in 1962.42 This revolution was driven by a populist fervor, and demanded democratic reforms that would allow for popular participation in the political structure as well as an address to the widespread poverty and general rural discontent that characterized the majority Hutu population.43 Although the increasing ethnic polarization evident across Rwanda in the late 1950s gave it the “appearance of an ethnic revolution,” the 1959 revolution, as Catharine Newbury explains, is best understood as a revolution of the peasants as a class rather than the Hutu as an ethnic group. 44 Furthermore, although “Hutu consciousness” was certainly a central driving force of the revolution as well as a product of the revolutionary movement,45 Newbury emphasizes that it was not Hutu leaders who “created” this Hutu ethnic consciousness. Rather, she writes, “it would be more accurate to argue that Tuutsi chiefs, through their use and abuse of power, created Hutu consciousness.”46 Over forty years have passed since the formal end of the colonial era in Rwanda in 1962, but the patterns of ethnicity as the basis of political organization and the concomitant pattern of deeply embedded ethnic polarization have continued to characterize Rwanda’s political environment over the course of the past forty years. As Mamdani underlines, the 1959 “Social Revolution,” although it succeeded in overturning both Tutsi and Belgian political dominance in Rwanda, 40 Ibid., 207. 41 Lemarchand, African Kingships in Perspective, 79. 42 C. Newbury, The Cohesion of Oppression, 195; Pottier, 124. 43 C. Newbury, The Cohesion of Oppression, 192. 44 Ibid., 181. 45 Ibid., 180-206. 46 Ibid., 209