Ma'afu died 6 February 1881 in Lomaloma, Vanua Balavu, and was buried on the island of Lakeba in the chiefly village of Tubou.
In 1847, King Taufa'ahau of Tonga included his cousin Ma'afu in an expedition sent to Vanua Balavu to investigate the killing of a preacher.
When Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau, the Vunivalu, by then the Paramount Chief of Bau, made his first offer to cede Fiji to the United Kingdom in 1858, William Thomas Pritchard, the British Consul, warned Ma'afu - by now the most powerful chief in northern Fiji - that under British rule, further attempts to expand his power base would not be tolerated.
Ma'afu shrewdly signed an agreement denying sovereignty over Fijians and claiming to be in the islands only to oversee the Tongan population.
Ma'afu was faced with a crisis in June 1868, when the Tongan government disclaimed all sovereignty over Fijian territory, including the Lau Islands.