Justice, Law, and Moral Ambiguity in Emeka Ukwuaba’s Hypnotising Minefield: A Jurisprudential Reading

The relationship between law, justice, and morality in authoritarian contexts has generated substantial philosophical and literary inquiry, particularly in postcolonial African states where legal frameworks have frequently been deployed as instruments of political control rather than justice. This study examines how Emeka Ukwuaba's Hypnotising Minefield (2025) interrogates these tensions through the fictional trial and condemnation of Bright Kabula, a young man sentenced to death for drug trafficking under retroactively enacted laws. The study is anchored on jurisprudential theory, specifically natural law theory's insistence on the moral foundations of legitimate law, and its contrast with legal positivism. A close-reading methodology is employed, supplemented by recent scholarship on law and literature as an interdisciplinary field published within the last five years. Findings demonstrate that Ukwuaba constructs Bright Kabula's case as a parable of jurisprudential injustice, foregrounding how retroactive legislation violates foundational principles of fairness and due process. The novel further raises the question of what constitutes legitimate state authority when the law itself becomes an instrument of harm. The study concludes that Hypnotising Minefield makes a significant contribution to the law and literature tradition in African fiction by staging a sustained critique of authoritarian legality. It recommends that the novel be incorporated into interdisciplinary curricula that bridge literary and legal studies, particularly in the context of human rights education.

Keywords: Justice, Retroactive law, Emeka Ukwuaba, Jurisprudential theory, Nigerian fiction