In the talks leading to independence from white-minority rule, Mr. Mugabe was pressured into an agreement that left land ownership unsettled. In what was and remains an agricultural economy, the nation’s most productive farmland was in the hands of a few thousand white settlers.

Resolving the land issue, including compensating white farmers whose properties were later seized, is critical to repairing relations with Western nations and international lenders, which have been virtually frozen for nearly a generation. The new government desperately needs Western assistance to revive the nation’s moribund economy.

Determining who owns the land is a necessary step to development and democratization in Zimbabwe. Nearly all Zimbabweans who benefited from Mr. Mugabe’s land reform policy lack titles, or legal ownership of their property — leaving them at the mercy of the politically powerful.

In his inauguration speech, President Emmerson Mnangagwa — who, with his military allies, removed Mr. Mugabe, 93, from power — said that “repossessing our land cannot be challenged or reversed.”

But Mr. Mnangagwa said that he was “committed to compensating those farmers from whom land was taken.” In addition, he said that “complex issues of land tenure will have to be addressed” so as “to ensure finality and closure to the ownership and management of this key resource.”

Government officials highlighted the case of a white Zimbabwean, Rob Smart, who was allowed to return to his farm in December. But Mr. Smart had lost his farm only six months earlier amid factional fighting inside the ruling party and regained it after Mr. Mnangagwa’s side emerged victorious, not through any policy change.