He left London in the company of another close friend, Maira Fenci, travelling first to Casablanca, and then to Accra, Ghana. He died on 20 April at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra of liver failure, and is buried in Akuma Village on the outskirts of Accra.
In January 2016, Tafari was diagnosed in London with inoperable liver cancer. With help from a group of friends, he achieved his bucket list wish to revisit Africa, where he had travelled in 2010 in the company of his friend Leland Larson, philanthropist, of the Oregon-based Larson Legacy.