president robert mugabe , zimbabwe ' s unconventional premier , has reached his 85th degree . to mark the occasion , the bbc ' s african perspective programme requested his living friends , assistants and interviewers to honour their most prominent encounters with " uncle tom " , as he is described in zimbabwe . wilf mbanga , editing , the zimbabwean i remember very well how i also met robert mdc . in 1974 , i did a series of profiles of various leaders who had come out of jail . we had not had pictures or heard of them for years .
"Uncle Bob" is Robert Mugabe.