Intertextuality and Historical Memory in Emeka Ukwuaba’s Hypnotising Minefield: Reading Real Events through Fiction

The incorporation of real historical events into fictional narratives constitutes one of the most complex and politically charged practices in contemporary African writing, raising questions about truth, responsibility, and the ethics of representation. This study examines how Emeka Ukwuaba weaves specific Nigerian historical events and cultural memories into the fictional fabric of Hypnotising Minefield (2025), with particular attention to the novel's reference to the Gloria Okon affair and its broader engagement with the memory of Nigeria's military era. The study is anchored on intertextuality theory as developed by Julia Kristeva and subsequently applied in African literary studies, as well as Paul Connerton's social memory theory. A qualitative textual analysis methodology is employed, supplemented by recent scholarship on historical fiction and memory in Nigerian literature published within the last five years. Findings reveal that Ukwuaba's intertextual strategy serves a dual historical function, preserving collective memory of specific events while also using those memories as a framework for critiquing the present. The novel constructs fiction as a form of counter-archive, rescuing marginalised or suppressed historical episodes from oblivion through their integration into narrative. The study concludes that Hypnotising Minefield represents a significant experiment in the fictionalisation of Nigerian history and recommends that it be read alongside established works of historical fiction in the Nigerian tradition, including those by Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Keywords: Intertextuality, Historical memory, Emeka Ukwuaba, Nigerian history, Postcolonial fiction