The Kong Empire (1710–1898), also known as the Wattara Empire or Ouattara Empire for its founder, was a pre-colonial African Muslim state centered in north eastern Ivory Coast that also encompassed much of present-day Burkina Faso. It was founded by Dyula immigrants from the declining Mali Empire. It established a largely decentralized commercial empire based upon linkages by merchant houses protecting trade routes throughout the region. Kong rose to prominence in the 1800s as a key commercial center and center of Islamic studies. In 1898, Samori Ture attacked the city and burnt it down. Although the city was rebuilt, the Kong empire had dissipated and the French took control over the area.

The area around Kong had been settled primarily by Gur-speaking agriculturalists: primarily the Senufo people and Tyefo people. Starting in the 16th century, Dyula speakers, an important branch of the Mandé, migrated from the declining Mali Empire into the area and founded the city of Bego. The immigrants were largely Muslim while the Senufo and Tyefo populations were primarily animist. Bego was destroyed at some point and the Dyula residents moved to the city of Kong. The area became a site for expansion, raiding and warfare of a number of regional powers, mainly Gonja and Dagomba. In this context, a set of heterogeneous populations and a set of different war houses (merchants with a large number of mercenaries and slaves dedicated largely to warfare) developed in the city of Kong.

The documented history shows that in the early 1700s, Seku Wattara (sometimes written as Sekou or Sekoue) deposed and killed an important leader in Kong, Lasiri Gbambele, by uniting the forces of a number of Dyula leaders in the area. Seku used this consolidated power to control politics in Kong and create a large sphere of influence throughout the region. But the Senofo People founded Khorhogo, the capital of the Senofo People and future capital of Kong in the 11th Century.

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