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> functioning microstate
And they weren't like those microstates when some blokes decide his property is a sovereign nation, but actual folks with several hundreds, thousands, 10s thousands of people. We got used to the thought that countries numbers millions, but it's not a necessity, even a the past couple thousand blokes could form states just fine.
It isn't impossible either that at one point, let's say in Europe, states will be decentralized so much that people can make major decisions about their lives on settlement level, from the settlement budget, funding local services, and only function on higher levels when it is absolutely necessary. Even now, in the EU the regions stepped forward as a way of coordinating smaller areas within countries, but above county level - sometimes even over state borders.
> but are they so radical?
In the case of Chad I would say it is more radical than it was in the case of Europe. In Europe the traditional way of living was mostly the same, even before the unifying force of Christianity and feudalism. I would say the difference in some cases even more larger than what was in the case of Rome and her barbarian neighbours.
In Chad beside linguistic, ethnical, cultural, and religious factors, they have/had such major dichotomies liek sedentary vs. nomadism, statelessness vs. statehood, and other differentiating factors like specialized economies to local conditions (e.g. fishing folks at bodies of water, or terracing cultivators in a mountainous zone). In Europe the list up to the sedentary-nomadism dichotomy holds true, but they all had states when these cultures clashed, and the specialized lifestyles (like transhumance) were within those cultures and weren't separate folks.
But if the differences are really that radical? Especially after 60 years of colonialism, and 60 more in these turbulent times, I dunno.
> Maybe it wouldn't work in 21st century, because [...]
Not the mention the ever present First World meddling, and China stepping up beside them. My thought was just a "could it be other way" or "would be better if" musing.