In Africa, "sujets" were assigned to two separate court systems. After their creation by Governor-General Ernest Roume and Secretary General Martial Merlin during 1904, most legal matters were processed officially by the so-called "customary courts". These were either courts convened by village "chefs du canton" or some other French-recognized native authority, or else by Muslim Sharia courts. While Muslim courts had some real local relevance behind them, the French history of chief-creation was to replace traditional chiefs with Africans who would be dependent upon the French. Consequently, customary courts often served simply to increase the power of official chiefs. What was deemed customary differed from "cercle" to "cercle", with the Commandant relying upon his native sub-officials to interpret and formalize oral traditions of which the French had little knowledge. Civil cases which came to the attention of the French officials were tried by an administrator-judge in a "tribunaux du premier degré", for which the administrator-judge was an appointed African notable (other than local chief).