Amara took slow, mindful steps as the morning sun rose, stopping every so often to admire the vibrant flowers and breathe in the fresh air alongside other early risers. As they turned a corner, they waved to Afreen, their dear friend and fellow recycler, whose dedication to sustainability shone through her innovative approach to cultivating a vibrant garden with sculptures made from salvaged materials. Afreen was passionate about transforming waste into valuable resources for the community. She paused her work on the community’s closed-loop composting system and returned Amara’s wave with a warm smile.

As Amara continued her walk, a familiar voice broke through her peaceful reverie. “It wasn’t always like this, you know,” Valeria said, her tone laced with a hint of relief. Amara joined the small group gathered around the elder, as Valeria shared stories of the past during their community education session. “In my day,” Valeria continued, her voice carrying the weight of experience, “women couldn’t walk freely at any hour without fear. We had to clutch our belongings tightly, always on guard.”

Amara settled beside Yuki, who was taking a break from coordinating the day’s resource sharing. In their community, helpful robots handled the heavy lifting while holographic displays showed everyone exactly how resources—water, energy, housing, healthcare—were being shared between communities. AI systems were deployed to make sure everything went where it was most needed, minimising waste and shortages. The technology, built by and for the community, strengthened their values of caring for each other and working together for everyone’s wellbeing. “We’re getting surplus solar from the coastal communities today,” Yuk i said to Amara, pointing to a pulsing line of energy distribution on a holographic display.

Valeria’s words served as a stark reminder of the world they had left behind, where scarcity, fear, and individualism once reigned. She described the gruelling reality of her past life, where she had to navigate multiple bus rides in the early hours just to reach the city centre by 8 am. The concept of such a fragmented and exhausting daily commute was foreign to Amara and her contemporaries. In the post-revolutionary world, communities were designed to prioritise proximity and accessibility, with workspaces, homes, and communal areas all within walking distance, connected by green corridors and shared gardens.

After the session, Amara headed to the community library to prepare for their upcoming teach-in on the South Feminist Manifesto. Each time they revisited this groundbreaking document, they felt a profound sense of gratitude and awe for the work of past generations of South feminists. Valeria’s words echoed in their mind: “A garden doesn’t bloom in a day. Change is a gradual process.”

The South Feminist Manifesto represented a crucial step in the transformative journey that had reshaped their world. The feminist revolution hadn’t merely dismantled oppressive systems; it had reimagined the very fabric of society. Life was now organised around the principles of purpose, rest, and community care, rather than the relentless pursuit of productivity and profit. The once-entrenched binaries of paid and unpaid labour, skilled and unskilled work, had dissolved. This transformation hadn’t happened overnight, but through the slow, steady work of organisation, collective struggle and resilience.

After preparing their notes, Amara joined others in the community space to make lunch. As they and their grandmother shelled peanuts together, they discussed how the excess, once dried and ground into paste, would be exchanged with other communities for essentials like handwoven textiles and artisanal soaps through the shared resource storage system. “Our revolution started in a kitchen like this,’ their grandmother said, her voice warm like the afternoon sun streaming through the windows. The rich smell of roasting peanuts filled the air as she shared stories of underground meetings disguised as cooking circles, of recipes passed down alongside resistance strategies. “Before the revolution, women couldn’t even sell pure peanut butter. They had to mix it with fillers just to make a meagre income,” she recalled. 

Kai, an agroecological farmer, entered the kitchen carrying jars of diverse seed varieties to add to the community’s seed banks for the farmers’ collective. Their farming practices honoured ancestral wisdom and biodiversity,  producing food that symbolised a harmonious relationship with the Earth—a stark contrast to the exploitative practices that had once  pushed the planet to the brink of ecological collapse. Gone were the days when multinational corporations dictated what was grown, how it was produced, and where the profits flowed.

Amara’s grandmother often spoke of the Global South Feminist Revolution. It began with the dismantling of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the consequent crippling of their overlords America and the Global North and the crumbling of their lackey – the military industrial complex. “From Indonesia to Kenya, Ecuador to India, feminist movements rose up against austerity policies,” she would say. “And from Palestine to West Papua, Marshall Islands to Western Sahara, feminist-led peoples’ movements ended military occupations.”.

“We marched, boycotted, went on strike, and sabotaged the machinery of oppression. It took a decade of coordinated refusal and resistance across the Global South, but we paralysed the entire global financial system.”

The revolution had started with small acts of collective care, such as establishing shared childcare spaces, seed banks, and healing centres. Gradually, communities built parallel systems while dismantling the old ones. Women farmers protected traditional seeds, indigenous communities reclaimed stolen territories, and feminist collectives created autonomous food systems. For ten years, feminist movements across the Global South worked in solidarity, dismantling extractive institutions, ending occupation and building networks of mutual support. They drew on ancestral wisdom and collective innovation to create new forms of organising life and resources, transforming not just systems of power but the very fabric of community life. Every aspect of Amara’s world—the gardens, communal kitchens, sustainable energy and public transport systems, public learning spaces—had grown from the seeds of their vision.

In Amara’s world, living spaces flowed naturally between private and communal areas, with shared kitchens, creation circles, and learning spaces where people gathered throughout the day. In the community’s food forest, perennial vegetables grew alongside varieties of grains, medicinal herbs, and flowers.

After having lunch, it was time for the weekly governance meeting. Kai shared their plans and suggestions for the expansion of the community garden. Afreen joined shortly and shared the revised blueprint of the composting system, to be discussed in the meeting. The political system they now lived under reflected this daily practice of consultation, collaboration and consensus. Leadership was temporary and rotating, based on the needs of the community and the expertise required. It wasn’t always quick, but it was thoughtful, transparent, and inclusive. 

After the governance meeting, Amara headed back towards the learning centre. She marvelled at the technology that surrounded her. The tram glided past with just a whisper of wind, its recycled metal shell gleaming dully in the afternoon light. It was a part of the community’s integrated and eco-friendly transit system. While most destinations were within walking distance in this intentionally decentralised layout, free and accessible public transport connected all areas. Aisha, a community member who used a wheelchair, had been integral in designing the inclusive features that were now standard across all public spaces and transportation, ensuring that everyone could navigate the community with ease. The public transport vehicles, the holographic displays, even the devices they carried—all were crafted from recycled materials and designed for durability. The community’s makers and recyclers, like Afreen, had played a crucial role in this transformation, finding ways to meet their technological needs without resorting to the destructive extraction of the past. This commitment to sustainability, born of necessity and ingenuity, had reshaped the very way they interacted with the material world.

Amara ran her fingers along the living wall of the learning centre, feeling the cool dampness of moss under her touch. Within its walls, people of all ages gathered to share knowledge, from traditional healing practices to cutting-edge quantum physics. Here, all ways of knowing were valued equally, fostering a culture of continuous learning, cross-generational wisdom-sharing, and intellectual curiosity. It was time for Amara’s co-learning session. They held up their well-worn copy of the South Feminist Manifesto. “This manifesto is not just a document,” they declared. “It’s a living testament to our collective struggles and dreams. It reflects the world we fought to build and the values that now guide our every action.”

“The South Feminist Manifesto”, Amara continued, “is a powerful reminder of the resistance and resilience of women from across the Global South, who had united in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds to dismantle the oppressive systems that had long held humanity in bondage.” In this world, shaped by the Manifesto’s principles, rest, cooperation, and community had replaced the exploitation, isolation, and the ruthless competition of the past. The once seemingly indelible scars of colonialism and capitalism had begun to heal, nurtured by collective care and unwavering solidarity of communities worldwide.

As Amara looked at the faces before them, they saw the embodiment of the justice and solidarity their ancestors had fought for, now visible in every community, every garden, and every act of care. With the South Feminist Manifesto as their guide and the strength of their shared vision, Amara knew that they would continue to nurture this world, rooted in the power of feminist imagination and the unyielding belief in a future where every life could flourish.