Barack Obama’s chef Tafari Campbell drowned yesterday in paddle boarding accident near $12m Martha’s Vineyard home of Barack and Michelle Obama. Just a few years ago, Tafari bragged in a social media post that he #stillcantswim.
Tafari, a sous chef, was first hired under the George W. Bush administration, and was one of just four White House cooks asked to stay on under Obama.
During the Obama presidency, Tafari became known for brewing White House honey ale beer, using honey from Michell Obama’s South Lawn garden.
‘I immediately thought of the African Americans who brewed beer for Washington and Jefferson, and was pleased to see the historical arc played out through the suds,’ historian Adrian Miller writes of Campbell in his book The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, from the Washingtons to the Obamas.
When Barack and Michelle left the White House, they hired Tafari to be their personal chef, and allowed him to use their Martha’s Vineyard mansion, when the couple was not in town.
In a post from 2017, Campbell and Sherise could be seen in the ocean in Aruba. He captioned that picture #stillcantswim.
Witnesses told police on Sunday night that a man – later identified as Tafari- went underwater and then briefly reappeared as he struggled to stay afloat, before submerging again around 7.46pm.
The witness – who was not identified – was paddle boarding on Edgartown Great Pond with Campbell.
A massive joint-agency search was launched when a 911 call was made from the Obamas’ Martha’s Vineyard home on Turkeyland Cove Road. The former president and first lady were not at the residence at the time.
The dispatch call said: ‘Edgartown Fire and Water rescue personnel, Turkeyland Cove Road. For a 40-year-old male, possible drowning.’
In the aftermath of the call, Chief Alex Schaeffer of the Edgartown Fire Department told the Vineyard Gazette, island police and firefighters conducted door-to-door searches.
Eventually, Tafari’s paddle board and hat were recovered Sunday – and his body was found around 10am Monday in the eight-foot-deep waters approximately 100 feet away from shore.
