Duisit, Deputy Secretary-General of the FGSPF, the authoritative body for France's zone libre at the time, joined the Free French Forces. Female Muslim participation in the associations was low, though it increased with the war of independence. Notable examples of those who did participate are: Nini Derdéche Philippeville, the all-round French cross country runner-up in 1956, and Lila Khelif from Algiers, Algerian 1956 junior 800m, shot put, and javelin champion. Catholic female youth sports associations, which for so long had been the exclusive reserve of Europeans, nevertheless largely ceased to exist with the arrival of Algerian independence. Southern territories Though the north of Algeria was divided into three French Algerian departments from 1902 (Algiers, Oran, and Constantine), Southern Algeria was made up of four militarily administered areas (Ghardaïa, Ain Sefra, Touggourt, and Oasis (whose seat was in Adrar); fr) until the statute of 20 September 1947 gave these areas department status as well. Up until that time, the French Foreign Legion, the African battalions and the Saharan Méharistes (a kind of French cavalry, but with camels rather than horses) had been responsible for introducing participation sport to the South: they had indigenous people build tennis courts, additional to those already in existence at the larger hotels. This only contributed to a limited extent to the spread of participation sport amongst the indigenous population however. It was mainly down to another institution, one which often had a close and complementary relationship with the military, to achieve that on a significant scale. Cardinal Charles Martial Lavigerie, professor of ecclesiastical history at the Sorbonne from 1854 to 1856, then bishop of Nancy in 1863, was appointed Bishop of Algiers in 1867. His outstanding management of the cholera outbreak which occurred there earned him great popularity amongst the Muslim population. Named Primate of Africa and the apostolic delegate for Sahara and the Sudan by Pius IX in 1884, he founded the Missionary Society of the White Fathers to work with the tribes of M'zab. They cared for the sick, evangelized, and provided schooling for children. The creation of sports associations, in addition to clinics and schools, enabled daily contact with young people, and from 1884 the White Fathers were already playing a role in the spread of sport; firstly amongst the local Kabyle populations, then throughout the wider southern region. Members of the religious establishment, in conjunction with the military, very quickly began organizing