Pakistan, Sept. 14 -- The Olympic flame was welcomed by music and dancing in Senegal 's capital on Saturday, as a march by 100 women marked the countdown to the first Olympic sporting event held in Africa.

Hundreds of people gathered at Dakar's Place du Souvenir Africain, a waterfront plaza overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by portraits of prominent figures from Africa and its diaspora, to greet the flame ahead of the Youth Olympic Games next month. The women carrying the flame are known as "lingeer" - a title for queens or royal women in Wolof, one of the main languages of Senegal.

Dressed in flowing orange and golden traditional dresses with yellow headwraps, they carried the flame to the plaza in a procession celebrating Sen...