Falké Barmou was from the village of Yama in central Niger and belonged to the Hausa ethnic group. Throughout his whole life, he worked as a full-time farmer and self-taught architect. Like the majority of the people, he began working on construction projects at an early age. Before getting married, he traveled around West Africa with other men as a traveling salesman selling traditional African medicines, stopping in places like Niamey, Ouagadougou, Bamako, and Dakar.

Falké Barmou was hired in 1962 to construct the Great Mosque of Yama after he had already designed a number of homes in Yama. Here, he applied his understanding of conventional Hausa architecture to avant-garde features. In the late 1960s, he performed the Hajj in Mecca.

Barmou passed away in 2002. 

• Yaama Mosque