inputs: hypothesis: Uncle Bob is Robert Mugabe. premise: President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's controversial ruler, has reached his 85th birthday. To mark the occasion, the BBC's African Perspective programme asked his former friends, employees and interviewers to recall their most memorable encounters with "Uncle Bob", as he is known in Zimbabwe. WILF MBANGA, EDITOR, THE ZIMBABWEAN I remember very well how I first met Robert Mugabe. In 1974, I did a series of profiles of nationalist leaders who had come out of jail.  We had not had pictures or heard of them for years.