Things Fall Apart
The summary/description on the back of the book talks about how there are two twin dramas perfectly intertwined etc. displaying the fall of Okonkwo and the rise of the missionaries/white people, but...The book basically covers Okonkwo's random history for 80% of the book and then at the end starts to mention all the depressing stuff with colonists taking over and missionaries.
I'm not sure why this is a classic other than the fact that it was one of the first pieces of African literature? Meaning, written by an African, though they did have oral stories and all that before, so.